Highschool In Hell
by AnimeWriter4Ever
Summary: Highschool is one big package that you HAVE to buy. It has romance, drama, betrayals, and breakups, but this highschool story is much more than that with murders, after school gangs, fights, and drugs. Dont forget the partying But compared to now that's normal, because now a new power is unleashed, throwing the world into chaos, and a new government has taken control.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Ok, I apparently got hooked on Naruto. I remember watching a random episode a few years back, and I was all like, WTF am I watching?!It was an episode with Orochimaru so its understandable, yeah? Heh heh . Well, now I like it, and I'm on Shippuden episode something. Anyways this is going to be a high school fic with LOTS of drama in and out of school. Everyone gets their fair share of attention, but it's going to be Sakura centric. The pairings are gonna change a lot, but don't worry it won't be like that for the whole story. Anyway, it's going to be a modern world. I don't know any Japanese or stuff so this is in America and Konoha is a large state along with Mist Village or any others instead of Texas or any other states. dobe means dumb ass, and there will be the usual -kun -san- or -sama. Uhm I'm still debating if I want naruto to say dattebayo or not hahaha but I know he'****ll say believe it. Hope you enjoy and On** **with the story!**

_**Disclaimer: **__**DONT. OWN. NARUTO! I don't own anything besides the plot and my own made up characters.**_

**P.S I have a very important Authors note on the bottom for all readers. Please take the time to read it because it may be very helpful if you are confused at any point.**

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Location: Kohona, Land Of Fire/ America

"Oh! Ino, don't you think this would be cute?" Sakura Haruno said to her best friend, Ino Yamanaka. It was the last day of summer and her, Ino, Ten-Ten Katanai **(A/N a mix of katana and kunai)**, and Hinata Hyuuga were finishing up their school shopping at one of the largest malls in Konoha and arguably the best.

Sakura was in a clothes store that held expensive jewelry and famous brands of clothes that she was positive she would never be able to even look at if it weren't for Ino's father's reputation and money as the head of the Yamanaka clan and business. It was the same for the school she was going to. For the past three years, Ino's father had offered to pay for her to go to the same school Ino went to, and she eagerly accepted. KHS was the best anyone anywhere could offer. If it weren't for him, Sakura would've been home-schooled, so she did all her work and studied hard so not a day went to waste. That meant Ino was the richie of the school, but Ino didn't brag about it unless someone was stupid enough to actually pick a fight with her. Sakura, well, she was one of the poorest ones. How she ever came to be Ino's friend was a mystery. To others .

"Hmmmm. I think you should get it, Sakura!" Ino said inspecting the short pink dress with stripes and circles of white on the sleeves and front. **(A/N the one Sakura has in the first couple episodes.)**

"Good, 'cause if you didn't agree , I was just going to 'borrow' some money." Sakura said seriously. Ten-Ten laughed at Ino's suddenly fearful face. If Sakura loved something enough and her blonde friend wouldn't let her get it, the latters money would mysteriously be less. Even then, she was the 'goody-goody' unless somebody really messed with her. She had perfect grades and she was loyal to her friends and anyone who was a bitch to her or her friends, was sure to get a good idea of just how bad the pinkette's temper can get.

"Alrighty, I'll go pay for this at the front." she said. "Thanks again for the money, Ino. I seriously wasn't looking forward to looking bad on the first day of school. Bad impression, ya'know?" Ino shivered at the thought of her pink hair a mess and a baggy grey T-shirt a couple sizes too big with crappy faded jeans. She was beyond exaggerating.

When Sakura finished paying for her clothes- courtesy to both her allowance and a little of Ino's money- she found that all the girls were finished shopping and were now modeling their clothes for each other.

"Hey, Sakura!" Ten-Ten yelled to her with a wave. "We're modeling the clothes that we're going to wear for the first day. Care to join?"

"Why not?" said Sakura with a grin. She walked over and sat in one of the three seats next to Hinata and Ten-Ten.

"Ok!" Ten-Ten shouted loudly into and imaginary microphone. Shopping passerbys gave odd stares and slowly walked away. "First up, iiiissss!" Dramatic pause. "Inooooo Yamanakaaaa!"

Ino strutted out from behind the curtains of the changing room with one hand on her hip, the other down by her side, as confident as ever. She wore a violet colored tank-top that had a stylish V-neck and lace long the bottom of the shirt. She had black skinny jeans that went inside of her silver, high heeled boots and her usual pony-tail that had a clump of hair on the left side covering her left eye. As the finishing touch and accessory, she had on large silver hoop earrings that complimented her baby blue eyes that clashed perfectly with her blond hair. The only thing she didn't have to buy but she wore, was the only clothing required for school; a metal plate with the Konoha leaf emblem attached to a piece of cloth. She wore hers around her waist, but anyone was allowed to wear it any way they wanted. As a headband, around the neck, arms, waist, on the forehead, legs, anyway anyone wanted.

The girls all clapped as Ino striked a pose, and switched seats with Hinata, who went in the changing room to put on her clothes.

"Beat that." Ino said with a smirk, being the competitive fashionista she was. "You bet your ass I will." Sakura snorted. Ino's smirk turned into a frown. She crossed her arms and pouted. "Aww, but I have a nice ass." Ino retorted. Sakura's eyes bulged as she made a gagging motion and pretended to choke herself with her other hand. She didn't want to know how Ino found out if she had a 'nice' ass. Ten-Ten fell off her chair, laughing at Sakura's totally weirded out face.

"I'm ready!" Hinata shouted (shouting for her was pretty much talking normally.) She walked out- less confident than Ino- both hands clasped behind her back as she showed off her outfit for her friends to inspect. It was a baby blue shirt that complimented her waist-length dark blue hair and had ruffles along the bottom. She wore regular navy skinny jeans and blue and white converse high-tops.

"Wow, Hina! That shirt totally compliments your eyes perfectly!" said Ino. And she was right. Hinata had unusual eyes that only the Huuga clan had. **(Clan is just another word for family). **It was unique and it is a white color with a slight, very slight, tint of the lightest shade of purple.

"T-thank you." said Hinata with a slight blush. "Sakura-chan, do y-you want t-to go next?" She asked. Sakura nodded and switched whith Hinata. She grabbed a bag and headed inside.

"I didn't see her clothes. Did you? Ino? Hina?" Ten-Ten asked curiously. Both said girls shook their heads. "I'm willing to bet it's going to have pink though. She seems to be obsessed with the color." Ino said with disgust. The only colors she were interested in were purple and white, her two favorites.

"On the contarary," Hinata started." She d-doesn't like p-pink at all." Ten-Ten and Ino gave a HUGE gasp. "WHAT!" they shouted at once. "You're fucking kidding me. That's a major surprise since she wears is _all the frickin time." _Hinata shook her head. "She only w-wears it b-because it matches her hair the m-most besides g-green. Plus, her mom is pretty o-overprotective and says a-all the other colors are too a-adultish f-for her d-daughter. She likes to keep Sakura as young in the heart as possible."

"So what color does she _really _like?" Ten-Ten asked with curious eyes.

Yeah," Ino agreed. "And why the heck did I know about this?"

Hinata gave a worried look. She was not all that excited to get a migraine due to Ino's complaining.

"Im ready!" Sakura called out, thankfully -for Hinata- interrupting their conversation. Sakura came out, and all the girls 'ooh'ed and 'ahhh'ed at her outfit. She wore a white cheerleader skirt with tan tights with a red, two-inched sleeved shirt with a white circle on the back. She also wore white gloves for some odd reason, but it still looked good, and, as the finishing touch, white and red Nikes. For her long and unruly hair, she wore it in a bun with a the Konoha Leaf headband as...a...well.._headband_. **(A/N similar to the outfit she wears in Naruto Shippuden.)**

"So I'm guessing red's your favorite color, huh?" Ino said, obviously unhappy that Hinata was the only one to know before her. "Yup," Sakura replied cheerfully. Oh, how she loved to irritate the pig.

"You guys like it? I dont know. It's not very pretty on me, huh?" All the girls gasped. _'There she goes again,' thought Ino. 'She never had self-confidence, and still doesn't. But I guess it's a good thing 'cause that's how we became friends, right?"_

"No way!"

"It looks soo cute!"

"Well, I know everything about fashion, heck I _am _fashion, and I say it's good."

Sakura gave Ino the 'you've got to kidding me,' look. "So, Ten-Ten," Hinata started, breaking the awkward silence. "Isn't i-it your turn?"

"Actually, you guys probably dont want to know what I'm wearing for first day." she chuckled nervously. She sunk back into her chair and bit her lip at Ino and Sakura's curious face.

"Why not?" Sakura asked. Ino and Hinata nodded their heads in agreement. "Heh heh. How do I explain this... well...erm..heh heh you see.. itsmybasketballjersey." she said quickly.

"TEN-TEN!" all the girls yelled, Ino the loudest and angriest, while said person rubbed her neck sheepishly while muttering, "Told you so."

-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-

When everyone finished paying for their clothes and accessories, the girls stopped at their favorite store an hangout; Cinny's All Girls Hangout. It was a place for girls only -they literally had a guard to make sure no guys came in and to check ID's for the bar- with food, an Ice Cream parlor, a small area in the back dedicated to clothes, jewelry and other accessories, a room with three couches forming a half circle in front of a _humungous flat-screen T.V,_ with a bar in the back. It was a _complete_ woman cave.

The girls came there so often, that most of the workers knew them and rarely asked them what they wanted for the day. If Sakura said, "The usual." they would know what she wanted right away and serve it up after a short conversation.

The group of girls sat in a booth in the corner of the 'restaurant' area- the part where they served the food- and began to talk in excitement about this school year, and -of course- boys, which was an impossible topic to avoid with Ino around.

"Finally." Sakura said. "Out of the freshmen year and into the next! I'm so tired of being called 'fish' all the time by the older groups."

"Yeah," Hinata agreed. "This year's going to b-be a lot m-more 'trash can free'." Before Ino, Sakura, and Ten-Ten met Hinata, she was always made fun of by others kids because of her stuttering and because she was so shy. Then the girls came, and now Hinata rarely got made fun of. People actually saw how nice a person the Hyuuga was.

"Yeah yeah." said Ino sitting beside Sakura." Enough about that, but boys? We got a _whole novel_ to finish. I hear," she dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper. "-that a gang of guys just moved here to Kohona from Suna! I'm willing to bet my designer Gucci boots that every single one of them are hot to the touch!"

"Ha!" Sakura snorted. "Face it, Ino. Nobody likes those things. Bet or not, I'm not taking them." Ten-Ten, Ino, and Sakura laughed at her joke. Ino's boots were actually very pretty, but it was a orange-brown color and Sakura hated it since the color just 'wasn't her style' she had said

"Hinata, what's wrong?" Ten-Ten asked, noticing the strange look on the girls face.

"W-w-well..." she started, fumbling with her fingers. She rarely stuttered on evey other other word anymore- luckily her friends broke that habit of hers -but when she did, she was either scared or nervous, so the girls payed close attention.

"I k-know one of those n-new k-kids." she said.

"What!" Ino yelled, suddenly very interested. "What's he like? Is he cute? Rich? One of those I'm-So-Badass guys?"

Hinata shook her head at Ino's rampage of questions. "I cant s-say he's all th-that handsome c-cause that'd b-be weird, but he is p-pretty r-rich. His name...his name is Neji Hyuuga." She finished in a small voice, looking at the floor.

"WAAH?!" all the girls screamed at once.

"Soo, he's _ not cute?" _said Ino, clearly disappointed_._

Sakura and Ten-Ten turned around to glare at her. Sakura couldn't _believe_ all Ino could think about were looks. Seriously, did she not hear what Hinata said? One of their names were Neji _Huuga_! HYUUGA!

"So...is he your brother or something?" asked Ten-Ten, reading her thoughts.

"N-no." Hinata said. "H-he's actually m-my cousin."

"GAH!" all the girls said in astonishment.

"Sooo," said Ino. "What's he look like?"

"INO!" all the girls yelled again. Hinata just giggled.

"Actually," she started." He looks like a girl."

Ino's eyes grew wide and her mouth opened to say something, but closed it. She raised her finger pointing at each of us. "B-but.." she stuttered. Sakura and Ten-Ten laughed at Hinata's answer and Ino's expression. "Somebody...get a...camera!" Sakura said in between laughs. "Your face is _priceless."_

"Haha, there goes your boots!" Ten-Ten laughed_._

"Shut up, you two." Ino said regaining composure, but the girls only giggled more and soon enough, they had Ino chuckling along with them.

"Hey," Ten-Ten said when she stopped laughing." Isnt it Hina-chan's birthday on the first of September?" Hinata nodded.

"Eep!" Ino squealed. "We're going to have a sleepover, and I'm going to do _all the _decorations, and buy a cake, ooh ooh! And we got to invite some boys_. Oh yes, lots and lots of boys!"_

Everyone in the room face palmed themselves and the workers all kept their distance while Ino started to cackle maniacally.

-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-()-

"Mo-om! Im home!" Sakura yelled out once entering the two-storied apartment. The apartment had only two small bedrooms, two bathrooms (one upstairs and another down) and a tiny, walk in closet sized kitchen. She dropped all five of her bags on the floor and closed the door behind her.

"Mom?" she called out again. Sakura gave a sigh when no one answered and was about to go upstairs to her room when she heard a loud thump followed by a shout. She moved closer to the kitchen since the sound was coming from there, and pressed her ear against the door.

"Do you mind telling me where you went off to last night? Huh!?" Sakura gasped. That was her mother's voice, but she never,_ ever _heard it sound so angry. Her curiosity wining over, Sakura looked throughthe cracks in the door to see what was making her mother, Kiashi Haruno- who _never_ lost her temper- shout so angrily.

When she pressed her face against the door, she had to stifle what would have been the worlds loudest gasp at the scene revealed before her. Her mother was standing with her hands on her hips and her father was standing in front of her arms crossed. People always said Sakura was the spitting image of her mom, but she always had that look that her father had sometimes. Her mother was a cherry-red haired woman, who had a creamy pale skin and emerald green eyes like her. Her father was a brown haired man with green eyes a slight shade darker than Kiashi, but he had a brownish skin tone that had a healthy glow.

"I don't know what you're talking about." her father said coldly.

"Don't give me that bullshit." Sakura's mother said with a snort. Sakura's eyes widened and even her father looked a bit surprised. Her mom, cursing? That was new. Sakura was so surprised, she half expected to wake up and all this turned out to be a dream but, as it turns out, that was not the case.

"I'm not taking any more of your lies. This has been going on for three years, and every time I took your lies even though deep down I knew what was going to happen in the end." she said. "But now...now I've had enough. It's over. I'm going to sleep, and when I wake up, I better see you gone. Just take your things and get the fuck out of here!" She shouted. Sakura always knew her parents were going to get a divorce sometime; they never got along and Sakura forgot the last time they even _hugged._

Then, Sakura's father did the unexpected. He laughed. Hearing her father laugh at her words, Kiashi put her hands by her side and looked at him, totally confused.

Seeing her mother's confused expression, he began to explain. "Now that you kicked me out, I'm practically home free. Like you said, this has been going on for three years, and for that long you can't imagine how much I wanted to leave. But now that you kicked me out yourself, you can't really expect me to support you and Sakura, to pay school or any of that shit. Its your fault I'm gone since you kicked me out. " He moved toward Sakura's hiding spot behind the door and grabbed his car's keys from the counter top.

"No." he said." You shouldn't even expect to even _hear_ from me anytime soon. Well," he said with a sigh. "Good riddance." Sakura's eyes widened as she slowly began to back away from the door. Her breaths became shorter and more rapid as she took in what just happened. As she heard the footsteps of her father from the other side of the kitchen door coming closer, she opened the front door and stepped outside and closed the door behind her as quietly and fast as possible.

Sakura ran, to where, she didn't know, but she let her feet carry her wherever it felt like. Next thing she knew, she stopped abruptly and she stood in front of a small building. It was a small, abandoned elementary school that she used to go to in her kinder year. It had been shut down a while because one day a criminal broke into the school to use a kid as a hostage to blackmail someone for something. It was still fuzz because it happened so long ago and no one knew the full story or exactly what happened. The police still haven't solved the case and parents stopped letting their kids attend and the funds began to run low. Eventually the funds were non-existent and the school was forced to shut down. It was forgotten and never demolished and now teens would dare each other to go inside from time to time, but other than that, it was always empty.

'_I need a place to think.' _She thought. _'But not just for now, but a place I can go to whenever I need to.'_

She suddenly gave a gasp. That's it! It was a crazy- no, insane- idea, but it would work perfectly. Sakura nodded to herself, and began to walk back home.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hellloooo! I'm back! Firstly, I want to thank the people who followed and/or favorite my story. You guys have **_**no idea**_** how much it means to me. R&R's make me smile my head off and I really appreciate you taking time for me. I LOVE YOU GUYS! Also, Happy Birthday Sasuke1 Anyone else writing a last minute oneshot for him? I know I did! There are some really funny and cute pics on deviantart too so checking that out would be awesome. Now, are you guys ready!? Ok then! Hope you enjoy! On with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I DONT OWN NARUTO!**

**-0-0-0-0-0-**

Sakura stepped inside the house as quietly as possible by using the spare key under the mat (original, right?). She went upstairs, careful not to step on the ones that creaked, and headed to her room which was, unfortunately, the one next to her mom's. She opened the door and winced at the creak it made as she closed it behind her.

She walked in and slowly made her way to her closet, and slid open the door . It was an averaged sized closet. Its contents, however, were another story. For one thing, there was wood. Well, it used to be her Barbie doll house, but as she got older, she lost interest in the toys, and broke it apart and painted the pieces black so it only looked like painted wood, which it technically was.

She threw the wood onto her bed and reached back into her closet and pulled out her suitcase. Yes, there was a suitcase in her closet. She and zipped it open and then began to place the house pieces in, along with a small pillow, a small blanket, her phone, and her emergency money case.

Now, here's the tricky part. She had to carry the suitcase down the stairs while making _absolutely no_ _noise_ (her mother was a light sleeper if she even _was _sleeping at the moment) and then _carry_ it to the kitchen since rolling it on the tile would make too much noise and wake her mother, again, if she was even asleep. Sakura took a deep breath and picked it up. _'Shit this thing is heavy!' _she thought. _'C'mon, Sakura. Suck it up! Show it who's boss!'_ her inner-self cheered. She rolled her eyes at herself. Sometimes she wondered if she was mentally insane or something. It wouldn't exactly be a surprise to anyone.

She was literally about two steps from the bottom, when she accidentally dropped it on her toe; causing her to shout out in pain, and the suitcase to fall down the stairs. Unfortunately, her arm was latched to it, so she went down too, and landed with a loud '_Thump'_.

"Oww." She moaned, but quickly stopped, realizing her mother might've woken up. Man, if she walked down here and saw her with a suitcase, her mom might get the wrong impression and Sakura's life would officially be over. Sakura slowly turned her head and looked up at the top of the stairs. No mom.

"Whew. That was close." She muttered with a sigh of relief. She sat up, and pulled off her socks and shoes to look at how bad her toe had been hit. It wasn't that bad really. Just a little blue bruise is all. She got up off the floor and continued on to the kitchen with the suitcase. She flicked the light switch on and put the suitcase on the table. She opened the fridge and grabbed five bottles of Root Beer and Mountain Dew; her favorite sodas. She also grabbed a bag of marshmallows- yes marshmallows- and some other snacks.

'_**Oh, I-I-I-I-I'm gonna kick somebody's a-sss. Oh, I-I-I-I'm gonna kick somebody's ayaaaas. Ohhh, I'm, oh I'm, gonna kick somebody's ass.' **_

'_Argghh! I swear Ino, I'm going to kill you first chance I get!' _Yup, you guessed right, _that _was her ringtone for Ino's number. Sakura's constantly threatening to 'kick her ass' so what better ringtone than this? She clicked the ignore button.

Sakura tucked the spare key in her pocket after locking the house door behind her, and set out again, but this time, with a suitcase in hand.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

If Sakura was being spied on, right now, at this moment, people would call her crazy, or insane. Wrong-in-the-head, as others would put it. And, for once, she half-agreed, for she was heading back. Back to the so-called haunted school that she would normally always steer clear of. Though it actually made sense of why she was here, if you thought about it. She needed a place to think, not only for today, but maybe for a week or two. She needed it to where no one would find out; she hated it when people worried about her, and finding her hidden in a place, staring into nothingness would be sure to cause alarm and _lots _of gossip. Unwated attention basically. She needed a place close to home so if she needed to she could come back without any suspicion. This place, out of all the others, had all of that. Quiet and private; no one dared to go within twenty-feet of the small building, therefore leaving some of her stuff wouldn't be a problem if she was to stay for a while and get comfy. It really was the perfect place.

Sakura looked around- there is such thing as stalkers you know! And no, she is _not_ paranoid- and, seeing nobody, opened the door and walked inside.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Sakura was…_surprised_, to say in the least. To tell the truth, she expected it to be dark and dusty, with creaking doors, and school chairs and desks either broken or toppled over. Instead, it looked in good shape. All the desks and chairs were removed, but the lights still had power in them, and not a layer of dust was to be found. The paint on the walls weren't even peeling yet either which was odd.

'_Looks like some poor guy got dared today,' _she thought. Apparently, people were being really brave today, because as soon as the thought left her mind, a nervously chuckling boy of fifteen with spiky blond hair and three whisker-like scars on each cheek, walked right in.

He turned around, and as soon as he caught sight of her, he screamed. "AHHHHH! IT'S A GHOST!" he screamed. He was already flipping out of the two seconds he caught sight of Sakura. All he could think was that here was a pink-haired girl right in front of him, and he was convinced she was a ghost.

_Oh God, what if Ghost Hunters really was real! What did they say ghosts did to people again? _He thought frantically. He got down on his knees and put his hands together.

"Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bother you, Ghost Lady! Don't hurt me!" he begged with anime tears in his blue eyes. This guy was obviously an idiot, and, had it been under any other circumstances, Sakura would've rolled on the floor, laughing at his stupidity. But instead, she was frozen in place, either by this boy's stupidity or fear of being caught, with only one thought in mind,'_ Why does this guy have to be so loud!?' _It was true; he seemed to scream out every letter that left his mouth. Then, another one of her crazy ideas popped into her head.

"Ooooh," she moaned. The look on the boy's face was priceless. "You have entered a place that is forbidden to humans," she said in her best ghost voice. She was taking advantage of his stupidity. "You deserve the severest punishment." He squealed like a little girl. "But today, I am feeling merciful and will let you go as long as you do something."

The boy jumped up from his knees with a nervous grin on his face and put his hands in an 'I surrender' gesture. "I'll do anything! Honest!"

"You will never come back, and will tell your friends to steer clear of this area at all times, as well as others. Leave, now" she finished as the boy gave a quick nod and high-tailed it out of the academy while screaming something that ended with a "DATTEBAYO!" She had never heard that in her life before. Ever.

Sakura gave a sigh of relief as the door closed behind the obnoxious boy, and slid down the wall that, luckily, didn't break due to her weight like she expected. She crawled over to her suitcase and pulled out all of its contents.

She set out the blanket and pillow like a small bed and put all of her snacks next to it and her valuables on the other. She put her sodas on one of the pieces of wood because the water on it would mess up the floor and people would be able to tell she was here.

She sat back and thought. Was she really that upset by her father leaving her without a goodbye? She would probably never get to see him again. Ever. He was never really there for her; always on business trips and meetings, even on her birthday. He never showed Sakura any affection. She didn't know his habits, favorite foods, favorite color, or anything really. If she was sad at all, then it really had to be for her mom. How she must be feeling right now must be terrible, being let down so heartlessly. Was it really wrong of her for not caring that her so-called 'dad' just abandoned her? Sakura sat back and pondered on this for a while, just wondering if it was really that wrong of her because she simply _didn't care._

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Damn you, Sakura! Answer the phone!" Ino yelled.

"Who knows, maybe she's busy or something." Ten-Ten replied with a shrug. Ino turned around to face her, and shoved the phone in her face.

"Ten calls, Ten-Ten," said person resisted the urge to giggle," Ten fucking calls and she hasn't answered or texted back! Think about it; if she was busy, then her phone would be off or she would've texted us saying so! C'mon Ten; what do you think she could be up to?"

'_Hmm, she does have a point,' _thought Ten-Ten. As she opened he mouth to voice her thoughts, Hinata interrupted, doing just that.

"I-I think Ino has a p-point, Ten-Ten." Hinata stuttered. Ino crossed her arms and smirked, no doubt thinking,'thats why you actually need to listen sometimes_.' _Ten-Ten stuck her tongue out childishly.

"Ok," said Ten-Ten slowly. "Say she is ignoring us. What are we going to do about it? We can't just waltz into her house and demand an explanation." Ino gave a _very _scary grin.

"Actually, my friend that is _exactly _what we are going to do." Ten-Ten and Hinata shared a frightened look, realizing the look on her face meant nothing could stop her.

-0-0-0-0-0-

**A/N Another suckish chapter and I am dearly sorry. Things are going to start off really slow cause I'm still introducing how things work and all the characters personalities. I will try to post the next chapter tomorrow since this one is super short and sucky, sound good? Next time; Ino, Ten-Ten, and Hinata find out why Sakura hasn't contacted and are in a very serious predicament. Are they going to miss the first and most important day of school and stay with their friend, or leave?**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N Hey you guys!**** Well...here ya go ,new chapter! Sorry it took so long T.T I really wanted to, but I never really go to it. I have nothing really to say ahaha. Uhm...I hope you , I got nuthin else to say so hope you enjoy, and on with the story!**

**IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE! by the way, this is rated T for cursing and mild violence, thought yall should know that. Hehe. Kind of important I guess. And for some perverted teen thoughts...teehee the highschool package. Also some characters may seem OC like Sasuke at some moments but I have a reason!1 Don't fret! Should I tell the reason now? Ok I guess. Sasuke may seem less depressed because yes his family did get annihilated, BUT it wasn't by Itachi and the person who did it already died. So no revenge crap. And since Sasuke's big brother is always there for him in this story they have a better relationship that also contributes to Sasuke having more emotion. He is still going to be a little sad because his family is DEAD! Make sense?**** And if there are any Rock Lee lovers he will come around uhmm...chapter seven along with Gaara I think. Well on with the story Hope you Enjoy!**

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* * *

_**"I'**__m really, really sorry, you guys." Sakura apologized. She had her head bowed with her long, pink bangs covering her face that, no doubt, showed how honestly sorry she was. She knew she had to stay with her mom though; she needed her. And would you believe it? Even with all of this in mind, knowing that Sakura had to help her mom, who was likely to get piss drunk the first chance she got, Ino, and Ten-Ten were both clenching their fists angrily, the platinum blonde, out of anger at her friend for 'betraying' them, the brunette out of the effort of holding her tongue and not saying anything she would regret. _

_All Ino could think was, 'How could she do this to us!? Does she know what she's putting us through!? C'mon, this has got to be more important, Sakura!' Sakura slowly closed the door, and without looking up to see the two's shocked -Ten-Ten- and betrayed -Ino- faces, she whispered a soft, almost to where they couldn't hear it, "I'm sorry...I really am.." and the door clicked softly as it closed._

_Click._

_Ino's previous betrayed look slowly switched to astonishment and then to disgust, but neither emotion was toward Sakura this time. It was pointed to herself, actually. Astonished at herself for thinking such things to her friend, when it was obviously not her fault that her dad was some bastard that had to ditch her and her mom (who had to act all depressed and stuff), and the disgust for the same reason. Ten-Ten shook her head and put a hand on Ino's shoulders. "It's not her fault." She whispered, reading the blondes thoughts. "C'mon...lets go. We're not going to do any good just standing here like idiots." And they all walked away, the thought of even trying to get their friend back not even crossing their minds._

"It really sucks that Sakura can't come." Ino huffed for what was the..._tenth_ time in twenty minutes. She tried to file her nails, doodle in her new notebook, text some random people, and play some Angry Birds, but she never really got herself to focus on any of these tasks. So, in complete boredom and not knowing what else to say, she would repeat the same thing. Over. And over. And over. And Ten-Ten, in the same situation, replied the same thing she did every time in her same nonchalant tone, never taking her eyes off the pocket knife she was twirling in-between her fingers.

"Like a four-dollar hooker." Which meant bad. And, of course, little, innocent Hinata would blush and sink even further into her over-sized jacket she had put on top of the clothes she bought at the mall the day previous with the other girls. All the girls wore the things they bought at the mall and modeled, Ino's with a little accessories to add to her outfit here and there -plus, she decided to straighten her front bangs that were usually lightning-shaped-, and thanks to the Ino, Ten-Ten didn't wear her jersey. Instead, she wore baggy white sweats with a red lining and a tank-top with the same; white with red lining. Plus, she wore her headband around her forehead. It was cute, but it still screamed Ten-Ten and that was all that really mattered to her.

All three of them, though Ino and Ten-Ten a little more so, were upset, and...well...they are girls after all. Ino, Ten-Ten, Sakura, and Hinata, they all know each other like the backs of their hands, and to be honest, when they really thought about it, they realized that none of them had anything that was really in common with each other. Except for one thing, and it was the fact that they hated to be shown as weak, and whenever they were sad or upset, they often hid that fact by acting...bitchy. Sometimes it was unintentional, but it worked for them.

They all knew that Sakura had a good reason for not being able to come with them, and they understood and all, but ever since they had met in middle school, the always promised to start every year fresh, and start it together. This was going to be the first time they had their first day of school missing one of the usual four. It was enough to put anyone in a mood.

_**Scraaape. **_

Ino cringed. The sound Ten-Ten was making with her knife sounded exactly like nails against a chalkboard. It wasn't exactly pleasant...

_**Scraaa-aaa-aaaape.**_

Ugh, it seemed to draw out longer. It was seriously getting on her nerves...her mood was far from improving.

_**Scraaaaaaa-aaaaaa-aaaaa-aaaa-aape.**_

_'Happy thoughts...' _Ino thought feverishly._ 'Deep breaths. Happy thoughts. Hot guys without a shirt. Haaaaaapy thou-'_

_**Scraaaaaaa-**_

"Ten-Ten! Will you just shut up already!?" Ino finally exploded, throwing up her arms that emphasized her annoyance. If you looked at it differently, it would've made a funny scene, Ino's eye twitching slightly with her hands thrown up in the air like a mad scientist. But Ten-Ten turned toward her with a cold and just as irritated glare and retorted coldly, "I'm not even saying anything."

"You're cleaning your nails with a knife." Ino snapped, completely ignoring the brunette's ticked-off look. "You're not even allowed to have them on here." Ten-Ten looked away.

"Yeah? Well suck it up, Princess."

And the rest was just an uncomfortable, tense silence except for the sound of Ten-Ten continuing cleaning her nails (though more viciously, no doubt just to spite Ino) and Hinata's dainty fingers tapping each other lightly. It was an old habit of hers that started up when she was uncomfortable. That was a lot too, being as shy as she was, and the tense atmosphere didn't really help anything at all.

Ino sat next to Hinata, who had the window seat, with her arms crossed and glared pointedly at Ten-Ten who sat alone on the seat next to Ino's and Hinata's. The weaponist ignored her glare and purposely twirled the knife in her hand so fast that it made a swoosh sound. It had the desired effect and Ino looked like she wanted to swipe the pocketknife right out of Ten-Ten's hand, but she knew better.

Ten-Ten's aunt owned a weapons shop that sold, well..._weapons_, that people could use for show, or actual use. When she was proved responsible enough, her aunt (she was adopted) taught her some basic tricks with knives and swords. Though she adored the swords and loved the knives, her favorite had to be the wooden bo staff. To her, it was easier to maneuver. Knowing all this, Ino knew better than to try to snatch away a knife from Ten-Ten.

_'This isn't going so well.' _Hinata thought worriedly. She sunk even further into her jacket_._

Besides the trio, the bus ride was unbearably loud. It was expected, being filled with many obnoxious teens, but that thought didn't stop the blonde and brunette from getting even more ticked off than they already were. Hinata, on the other hand, didn't really mind. It meant that she could just blend into the noise and not get noticed. That was probably the only upside of being on a bus for her, but she couldn't really say that it was a particularly enjoyable one, though. All of it, girls bragging about their summers at their 'mummy' and 'daddies' beach houses or mansions, guys talking about the 'sexy new babe' they just got hooked up with, and others texting like no tomorrow and listening to music without ear buds on their phones just so they could listen and chat at the same time. It was chaotic, but that was being a teen for you. Seeing other teens that act like stupid idiots all the time and think life is all about being higher up than anyone else. Fun, right?

Well, all those stupid idiots were the reason why the three girls were the first to sprint off the bus like lightning as soon as the school building came into view, not even waiting for the moving fading yellow pile of junk to completely stop. Ten-Ten could probably run for hours, Ino could barely keep up a steady jog for about five minutes, and Hinata wasn't really the athletic type, so just as they caught sight of their school, Hinata and Ino stopped to catch their breaths and stared in awe despite the fact that they went to the same exact school last year.

It was a rich school, anyone could tell that just by glancing at it. It was three storied, not counting the tornado cellar (even though there hasn't been one of those -tornadoes- in decades) and the attic. You would think that the attic would be a perfect party place for a bunch of teenagers to chill out and maybe drink some hidden booze during lunch, but that wasn't the case. The attic was steered cleared of just as much as the abandoned academy and it was pretty much for the same reason too. A few years back, before the girls even attended Konoha High, a kid went up there as a dare and never came back. Pretty cliché, huh? Well that's not it. When another kid was dared to go up there, he ran out screaming, and said that he saw the kid that went up there before...dead. I know, still cliché. A few more dares were made, but it was always the same, a kid running out screaming bloody murder whether it was for real o just for the sake of scaring everyone else. And then all the dares suddenly got boring, and they just stopped. Ten-Ten wasn't gonna lie, that was exactly why she was so excited to see the new kids; she couldn't wait to dare one (or all) of them to go up there. She was the type of person who just loved to watch the world burn.

The first floor was made up mostly of the HUMUNGOUS gym, which had an indoor swimming pool (wat kind of school as a _pool?)_ and volleyball net, and outside (there was a door in the gym that lead to outside) next to it were some tennis and basketball courts along with an empty field for other activities in the summer and spring. There were different choices of sports for students to chose from. There was tennis, regular P.E with varying sports, volleyball, football, and basketball. The second floor held most of the classrooms and the cafeteria which was more like a really nice restaurant though. It had a pizza parlor, dessert area/bakery, and it was an all-around-the-world theme. It had food from the desert, Suna, seafood from the more remote and wet locations, Amegakure and the Hidden Mist, and food like pastas and Alfredo that, surprisingly, originated from the Sound. That was another unique thing about Konoha High. Unlike other schools, it accepted students from other states like Suna, Ame, The Hidden Mist, and Konoha, our home. There was only one school that was able to do that in the whole Land Of Fire and most small surrounding lands, so it provided the best education for every student.** (A/N The Land of Fire is a country**) That was also the only reason that there was no dress code except from the headband engraved with their home's symbol each student had to wear. It was so that each student could show off his/her culture like..say, students from Suna usually wore baggy/airy or short (shorts, t-shirts, dresses, etc.) clothing because of their hot weather.

The third floor was made up of the library (which was huge!), the classrooms for electives, and, believe it or not, student lounges. There was a band room, which was the largest, a drama room which was connected to the auditorium which was also on the third floor, the art room, and the technology, or computer, room. The student lounges (there were four) were all marked by year; freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. They were pretty big and enjoyable too. The one for sophomores had two black leather couches facing each other on the far left side with a coffee table between them and two other leather chairs placed on the right side of the room. It had a fridge for snacks and drinks, and lastly; stools lined up against a counter for students to play, study, or charge their laptops. It was pretty wicked

Done with taking in their school, they walked up to the school in a mood mixed with excitement and anticipation, and slightly better than the one they were in on the bus, slightly, and the girls walked slowly up to the already crowded entrance, but were stopped short after hearing a familiar voice that made each of them break into a wide grin. Their little angsty mood was long gone as soon as the slightly breathless voice reached their ears and all the previous quarrels were forgotten.

"So, you gonna ditch your best friend, or actually decide to wait up?"

…_**|•°•°•°•°•°•|…**_

_"Holy shit!_ You're actually here!"

"Emahgawsh! Why didn't you text me!?"

"What bus did you ride?"

"No, I'm serious. Why didn't you text me!?"

"I-I think y-you're ch-choking her."

Giggling like sadistic schoolgirls, Ino and Ten-Ten let go and took a step back, while Hinata just smiled warmly and gave a much less life-threatening hug.

"Well, I'm glad you guys want to see me and all, but it's kinda pointless if I'm going to suffocate from a hug and die." Sakura laughed happily.

She was still slightly panting from having to run to catch up to the other three, and her hair looked like it had been attacked by The Hairdresser on Elm Street. (Old joke, don't ask. It was a fail of a comedy really.) Ino eyed her clothes which, to her pleasure, were the same ones she bought at the mall like everyone else's, minus Ten-Ten. Ino was certainly glad that Sakura could make it, and she couldn't even bring herself to deny the little voice in her head telling her that she knew Sakura would come to her senses, though another part wanted to know what made her decide to come. Ino knew that Sakuras mom needed her and she wasn't the type of person who abandoned people in need.

"Ok." Sakura huffed in fake annoyance. "I guess I can answer your questions." She paused and smirked. "If you all beg."

Ten-Ten's eyebrow twitched. "Oh _hell_ no. Not after having to put up with Ino sulking around all the time just because you weren't there." She said with Ino actually nodding in agreement. It was probably only so she could get out of having to beg, but it was still a real shocker, the stubborn bitch.

Giving up, Sakura let go of the act and sighed playfully. "If I must." She said while holding back a smile. "I didn't text because I wanted to torture you guys by making you all wait, and I was kinda curious as to how much you guys would miss me." she said, only half-joking.

"Let me guess." Ten-Ten interrupted while tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Blackmail?" Sakura gave her a wide grin and held up her phone. "Bingo."

"Anyways, next question." She continued. "I caught bus forty-seven just before it left. It was one heck of a bus too." Sakura said with a short chuckle. She ignored Ino's curious look, and checked the time before she started to walk toward the entrance. "You guys comin'?" She asked over her shoulder.

Nodding rapidly, everyone ran a few steps to catch up and look up at the towering school that they called 'their's'.

The doorway was super crowded and was much louder than the bus was, but with enough shouting and shoving (Ten and Pig) they all got through easily. The hallway was begging to be dirtied by candy wrappers and coffee cups, it was just too spotless to be real, but it was the first day. The principal's office was to the right and the girls bathroom (next to the boys) was to the left. The four walked to the bathroom and shoved open the doors at the same time, nearly falling over when it opened easier than they expected, and Ino, Ten-Ten, and Sakura sat on the sink's side, not actually sitting in it, while Hinata simply stood.

"So do you guys remember the plan?" Ino asked with excitement. Everyone nodded but Ino continued on anyways. "Well, I'm still gonna repeat it." Ino held up her index finger. "Step one: get your schedules as fast as you can while looking out for any new kids." Two fingers. "Step two: run back here and we'll all compare schedules and report any new people we see." Three fingers. "And the final step: well stay in here and put on some last-minute make-up and I also have an extra hairbrush just in case. Alrighty, girls! We're gonna be fashionably late!"

When Ino finally finished her little 'speech', little air punch included, Ten-Ten and Sakura looked at each other knowingly before looking back at a very self-impressed Ino. They both brought their hands to their foreheads in a salute and in unison said, "Ma'am, yes ma'am!"

Hinata burst into a fit of giggles, while Ino crossed her arms with an eyebrow twitch. The two mischief makers fell off of the sink side with an 'ow,' before bursting into another fit of laughter. Even Ino had to laugh at their little fall.

"You guys really know how to tick me off, don't you?" She said with a chuckle.

"You bet!" The three, even Hinata, chorused.

Once they all quit laughing, they all stood up and looked at each other with excitement.

"Let's hit the hall jack." Sakura said.

Ino, Ten-Ten, and Hinata looked at each other knowingly before replying, "And we won't come back no more." Meh, there were more bathrooms anyway.

…_**+-+-∅-+-+…**_

Sakura was sure that she was going to die. All the pushing and shoving, all the higher-ups (cheerleaders, jocks, football players, sluts) throwing around footballs that were coming from every direction at once, and cheerleaders throwing around pom poms were almost inescapable. It was a literal shove-or-die situation. And there was that certain fact that nearly everyone there was a head or two taller than her. Looking out for anyone new was going to be impossible. She cursed her shortness. She wasn't even close to the line for schedules but it was still suffocating crowded.

There wasn't exactly a line for the schedules (which were organized by alphabetical order of last names) so Sakura didn't feel guilty for 'cutting' the other students. When at the front she made a quick scan for the 'H's, and when she found it, she grabbed the packet that said "Haruno Sakura" and made a dash out of the crowd.

_'Geez,'_ Sakura thought. _'I get how Ten-Ten and Ino can get through a crowd like this, but me and Hinata?_' She grimaced. _'Aw, man. Hinata...'_

Just so she wouldn't be lying when she told Ino she at least tried to look for newbies, Sakura stood on her toes and looked around the hall. With a sigh, Sakura came to realize that the amount of hot guys was rapidly dwindling. About half of the brunette's (both guys and girls) were now a beach blonde.

_'Know him. Seen her last year. Old. Old. Old. Damn redhead, get outta my wa-'_

"Shit," Sakura cursed under her breath. Now she was wishing she was _smaller._ Right in front of her was that 'damn redhead' that blocked her view from the other students. The very person, actually people, that she hated more than anyone else in the world. Karin, Ami, and Lani, A.K.A, the Three Sluts.

The_ 'leader'_ of their little trio, was Karin. She had red hair, like Ami and Lani, that was stick straight on one side, and extremely poofy on the other. She had red (almost pink) eyes that were surprisingly not contacts, which were framed by oval-shaped glasses.

The other two were such wannabes. They couldn't be any more obvious than they already were with the fact that they were trying their hardest to look exactly like Karin. They both had dyed red hair and red contacts, but at least they didn't have the glasses.

Their clothes...it was disgusting to even describe, no _look at_. Their shorts didn't even cover half of their thighs, ok _just _half their thighs, and they wore brown, just above the knee length high-heeled, black leather boots. Karin wore a shirt that looked more like a bra because it was a red tube top that stopped a few inches below her extremely _small_ breasts, and the other two wore the same thing except the color of the top was different. To top it off, they all wore a black leather jacket that had a high collar and was unbuttoned to show off their 'shirts'. Sakura liked the fact that there was no dress code and all, y'know the freedom, but seriously? Wow.

They didn't even bother to look at Sakura when Ami and Lani so happened to brush past the pinkette. Kari stood in front of Sakura. She clenched her fists.

"Move." Karin demanded, her voice raspy from smoking, yea believe it or not she illegally smoked. And she was so obvious with it; it was such a wonder no one has rat her out yet. She was simply looking at her nails, and she didn't even bother to look Sakura in the face when talking to her.

"Well go ahead and do it then." Sakura calmly said. "Don't just say something and not do it." Sakura's cool and calm tone wasn't going to last for long and Karin knew it; the redhead just ticked her off so easily because of everything that had happened last year. It as like some sort of rivalry. And because Karin knew that Sakura hated her with every ounce of her being, she continued fueling the fire, Sakura's temper rising by the second even though Karin barely said anything to her.

Karin sighed and put her hand on her hip. She was finally looking away from her stupid nails and at Sakura's face. "Ugh, I knew you were an idiot before, but seriously!? I mean you move aside, Stupid!" She flicked Sakuras forehead. What Karin had always called her 'dart board' for.

Ami and Lani giggled like dying hyenas and Sakuras face turned pinker and pinker because of the surrounding people's snickers, and her fists clenched tighter. It took all of her will power to not punch Karin through the wall; actually Sakura was seriously contemplating it.

"Ooh," Ami spoke up in a loud enough voice for everyone's eyes to turn to her. "That struck a nerve, didn't it?" she was referring to the forehead flick.

"Not gonna cry now, are you?" Lani baited. Pshh, cry over a _flick?_

Sakura threw her head back and gave a short sarcastic laugh. "Ha! Yeah, like cry from laughter! That was really sad, I hope you know. Youre attempt to get some sort of reaction from me. I know exactly what you three are doing, and you know what? You're not even worth the time." Sakura pushed Karin out of her way and headed towards the girls bathroom. (Though she struggled to not smack them all upside their dopey heads on the way.)

_Yank_

With a small yelp, Sakuras head jerked backwards sharply, bringing small tears to her eyes and almost making her fall on her ass. She stumbled backwards and tried to regain her balance.

"Oh, don't think that you're gonna get away from _me_ that easily, Pinky!" Karin growled. She pulled on Sakuras hair harder. The dying hyenas simply watched and laughed more as they soaked attention from the gathering crowd like sponges.

"You, see," Karin hissed in her ear, _"I'm_ the one that runs this place got it? If I want something, I get it. You aren't wanted here; I'm surprised you didn't get that message a long time ago."

The gathering crowd around them started murmuring, and shouts of 'fight!' where heard here and there.

_'No!'_ Sakura thought._ 'I won't give Karin the satisfaction of seeing me lose my temper over her! I won't give her what she wants!'_

Just as she was about to turn around and grab the redhead's wrist, an authoritive voice that made the whole crowd immediately scatter rang through the hall.

"Hey! What's going on here?!"

A teacher Sakura didn't recognize from last year, ran/fast walked into the hall and so she did the first thing that came to mind; she plopped down on her knees and wept.

"S-sir..." she sniffled. "I-its s-so terrible! These g-girls were s-so mean and they b-b-bullied me!"

Karin stood with an open mouth while looking from both me and the teacher. "WH-what? You don't honestly believe her?" She said incredulously. "I mean...look! It's so fake!"

_'She sounds so desperate!'_ Sakura thought satisfied. She looked up with her best puppy-broken-heart face which really wasn't even much. But, TA-TO-THE-DA! It worked!

The teacher nodded to Sakura, then gave a stern look to Karin. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to have a talk with the principle." Karin acted like her usual self, and basically threw a little temper tantrum. It was so amusing to watch.

The teacher and Devil finally walked (the latter stomping) out of sight, and Sakura jumped up with a cheer before making a beeline for the bathroom. Ino was going to have her head.

She cackled loudly, "Hahahaha! Eat that shit, suckers!" she hoped they didn't actually hear that.

**~|°Π•Π°Π•Π°|~**

"And why the hell, are you late to my were-going-to-be-fashionably-late meeting!? Ino shouted at Sakura as she opened the door.

With a sigh and quick roll of the eyes, Sakura explained it all in one breath. "Long story short: met up with the three sluts, got physical, teacher comes, and so I fake being the distraught victim of the redhead's bullying."

Ino let out a groan. "They're still here!" She said in a pitiful voice. "That's it. My life is officially _over_." Drama queen.

"Well, who else can I use for my punching-bag?" Said Ten-Ten with a mischievous grin. There was a particularly bad fight last year, and Lani was stupid enough to challenge Ten-Ten to a fight after school. Everyone was watching which was no doubt what Lani wanted, but Ten-Ten beat the shit out of her.

Hinata stayed silent. She had some bad memories with those three too.

"Anyways, I already got my make-up on, and since you guys don't want any, we should just take our time and walk and talk to class."

Sakura grunted in agreement to the blondes plan and hopped off the sink counter.

"So did anyone see anybody new?" Ino asked hopefully.

"Nope."

"None."

"No."

She sighed. Trying for a new subject, Ino wrapped an arm around Sakuras shoulders. "So, you finally gonna get a guy this year? You've been single for almost a year now!" Ino pestered with a suggestive tone. Her eyebrows wiggled mischievously.

"I just...haven't found the right one yet."

Ino clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "So cliché, Sakura." Ino received a glare in return.

"Ten? What about you?" A single glance gave Ino her answer. "Hinata?" A shake of the head. "You guys are hopeless." She groaned. "Hey, you're single too." Sakura pointed out. Ino's mood went from teasing to incredibly emo.

214

"We're here already?" Sakura said. Checking her phone, (IPhone 4s) Ino gave a smirk and said, "Just on time for being late!" Ten-Ten gave a sweat-drop.

"I have no idea what that just meant."

"Oh, just open the door already!" Ino shouted. She was jittering in excitement. A new year...new things...how right she was. Ten-Ten looked at Ino who made no move to open the door. Ino was looking at Sakura who was staring at Ten-Ten. Turns out, Hinata was, surprisingly, the one who finally reached out her arm to open the door. She grasped the knob and turned it.

"Hahaha! Like you can pick up a chick like her! What a joke!"

"Aaahhhh! Look at him! I'm just _dying_ from the heat! Sexay!"

"I'm sure! Look what the text says!"

"So who knocked up who?"

"Hahaha! You owe me money 'cause Ame's team lost!"

"Did you hear about the little fight with the pinky and redhead in the hall earlier?"

"So, my mummy says I have a hundred dollars to spend at the mall tomorrow. Wanna join up after school?"

Ino was mad. As in _mad_ mad. Like _pissed_. The whole class was awake and talkative for the first day back, and there were paper airplanes and notes flying everywhere with a million conversations about a bunch of drama and gossip at once. There was no teacher in sight, and teens were up and about, some even doing cartwheels. Yeah, cartwheels. Cheerleaders. The bd kind sadly.

"I can't...believe...I came to be late...by twenty fucking minutes...for the teacher to not be here!" She screeched. But Sakura, Ten-Ten and Hinata weren't paying any attention to the platinum blonde basically melting from anger.

"YOU!"

"I-...you...the guy from before..." Sakura stuttered.

**`~Xo•0•oX~`**

A blonde teen her age with whisker-like scars on his cheeks was pointing at her with a fierce look in his blue eyes. The exact boy that she lied to and told that she was a ghost. And surprisingly enough, he believed it.

"You were that ghost from the academy!" He jumped up and shouted in a voice as loud as Ino's. Some teens broke off their conversations and stared at the group.

"Uh...about that..." Sakura said sheepishly. "I might've lied...just a bit."

"Well, yeah, I kinda realize that now." The blonde was surprisingly not upset at all about the fact that Sakura lied and scared him pretty badly at the academy. He just sat back down with an ear-splitting grin and propped his feet up on the desk. Well, they barely knew each other, after all, probably best to not make an encore of the little Karin meet with a sort-of stranger.

"The name's Uzumaki Naruto by the way. It'll be real famous one day I tell you, so remember it!" he exclaimed.

_'Real famous?'_ Sakura thought skeptically. '_He must be pretty rich to want to get so high up and declare it out loud with such confidence. Or he's just one heck of a goal setter. Naruto Uzumaki... he was pretty hyper with a go-lucky attitude. I'm surprised that he's never talked to Ino before. Though he's not half as bad. So far...'_

"Haruno...Haruno Sakura."

Naruto leaned forward in his seat excitedly and said with enthusiasm. "Y'know, you're the fourth friend I've made so far! That's an awful lot for me!"

Sakura's brows furrowed. The fourth? Only? Four friends weren't very many for his age especially since KHS was such a social school, even to strangers. Why would he think that four was a huge amount? Was he new here? As in Konoha? No, his headband had the leaf's symbol, so if he was new he must've been here for at least a month. She was puzzled for a moment before Naruto suddenly brought up a one-sided conversation about ramen that strangely caught her attention.

The other two shouts of '"You!" was surprisingly from Ten-Ten and another teen that must've been one of Naruto's friends because he was sitting right next to him (Naruto was in the left corner of the first row.) The teen had eyes exactly like Hinata's and he had _really pretty_ waist length hair pulled into a low/loose ponytail; fitting the description Hinata had told the girls at Cinny's.

_'He must be Hinata's cousin.'_ Ino guessed while watching the two from the sidelines. Ten-Ten sure knew him.

"Neji?" the brunette asked. "Why are you here?"

"For school. Why else." He replied in an it's-so-obvious tone. Yeah, definitely one of those stuck up guys. It was really mean, but he looked like he was one of those always sick to the rules nerd dude too, probably because of the long hair and tone in his voice. And _definitely _rich. Then again, partly, Ino was just quoting Hinata's description.

_'Though he looks like a girl.'_ Hinata had giggled.

"Well, it's kinda weird seeing my sparring partner at my school." Ten-Ten said sheepishly. And...oh god, was she blushing? Ino, who was now completely over the teacher not being there, shook her head and cut them off. "Wait, wait, wait." She said. "Sparring partner? Neji? Who, what, where, when, why?" Ino asked.

"Ok," Ten-Ten sighed. "Neji Hyuuga, probably Hinata's cousin," a nod from Hinata, "Goes to my morning and afternoon Tae-Kwon-Do classes and is my only sparring partner since were evenly matched." When Ten-Ten said 'evenly matched' she gave Neji a hard look while he simply stared blankly back.

With a nod, Ino looked toward Sakura instead. "What about you and yellow-head?" Naruto's spiky hair was, indeed, a bright eye-catching yellow that made Ino wonder if it was natural or not.

"I met Naruto when I was," Sakura hesitated. "_Camping out_ at the academy. I might have told him that I was a ghost to shoo him away too." Ino nodded. She understood what she meant when Sakura said 'camping out.'

Ino broke into a sudden grin. "Yay!" She cheered. "There _are_ new boys after all!" And, oh my God, she turned toward Neji. And he had no idea what was going through her mind, but the girls knew.

"Ino!" Hinata squealed. "H-he's my...cousin!" Ino missed how Hinata's voice faltered when she said 'cousin.'

"Oh..." she said sheepishly. "Well...Naruto!"

Ten-Ten and Sakura gave themselves a face-palm. "Actually you two, I'm only asking if there are any other new guys they know. And if he's part of the group of guys from Suna."

"Oh."

Naruto smiled. "Hey!" He exclaimed. "How'd you know me and Neji came from there?" He frowned with a head scratch. "Though you might know about Neji cause I heard something about a cousin."

Naruto didn't notice it, but as soon as Naruto said that, Hinata took one look at him and completely froze up and turned even paler than her already light skin.

'_That boy... I-I know him... I saw him a while ago. When I was... I wonder if he still remembers me.' _She sure hoped not. No, she didn't want him to remember her at all; she almost decided on running straight out of the classroom when he almost looked at her when he was talking to Ino, who was right beside Hinata.

_'He can't see me.'_ She thought frantically. Just as the thought left her mind, Ino squealed for an unknown/known reason and turned toward Hinata.

"Omigosh! Omigosh! Hinata I _sooooo_ saw that." She said at an earsplitting volume. She grinned mischievously and softly elbowed the Hyuuga. "I saw how you froze up when you saw Nakuro."

"Naruto." Hinata corrected. "Oh, whatever. You might even beat Sakura at getting a guy! Eep!" To be honest, Hinata had no intention what-so-ever of telling Ino or any of the others about her and Naruto's previous meeting. So, she lied. And, not lying to her best friends very often, she felt extremely guilty about it. "Ummm. Y-yea, I g-guess so."

"Ummm...well I met this other kid from Suna a few weeks back, but I think that's it..." Naruto said. Ino literally pounced on the poor guy.

"Yaaay! What does he look like? Act like? How old is he? Is he tall? Dark skin? Handsome? Rich? Have a nice car? OMG! Does he have his own limo?!" She screamed. Naruto fell out of his chair.

"Heh heh, sorry I'm late, class. A black cat crossed my path, so I had to take a rather large detour around town."

Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Ten-Ten, Neji, Naruto, and every student in the classroom immediately stopped what they were doing, paper airplanes falling to the ground all around, and whipped their heads around to face the front of the room to see the person that would be teaching their homeroom for the rest of the year.

Standing in front of the whiteboard with a sheepish little wave at the class was a man nobody recognized. He had gravity-defying gray/silver hair that started out straight up then kind of arced to the right of his head to where it was almost straight down to his headband that covered his right eye. He also had a black mask that covered his whole face except for his right eye, and even though his hair was silver/gray and more than half of his face was covered, he looked like he was in his late twenties. He had a weird green vest that had cushion-y looking things that went around his neck except for the front and he wore normal black pants**. (A/N The chunin vest. Y'know; the thing he always wears.) **

"You're late!" Naruto shouted with an accusing finger-point.

"Thanks for repeating what I just said." The teacher said. "Any _other_ questions."

Sakura raised her hand and he nodded at her. "Ummm. I've already met all of the teachers for our grade, but I've never seen you before."

His lone eye widened. "Ahhh. I guess I forgot to mention that." He reached into a drawer in his desk and pulled out a stack of papers.

"This paper will explain all the new arrangements for this year-"

"New arrangements?!"

"Yes. They are very important so read through carefully, and it will also answer Miss...?"

"Sakura." She answered.

"Sakura's question." The teacher said, passing around the papers. Realizing that they were still standing, the four girls found some seats behind Naruto and Neji and sat down.

As soon as the papers reached the four girls, they huddled together and read over it quickly.

**Dear all students of Konoha High,**

**This year will be a new year with new things and schedules for every student, and getting out of your summer habits is going to be essential to succeed in your academics with the highest grades possible. As important as all of that is, we have a different matter to discuss that will be of the utmost importance. Those of you who have attended KHS last year have been familiar with the principal Hiruzen Sarutobi. I am very sorry to announce that he has now passed away due to a terrible illness.**

The girls looked at each other with shocked faces. "He's not here?!" Ten-Ten whispered. "Then who's going to be our new principal?"

Sakura shushed her and continued reading silently.

**Yes, that will mean that you have a new principal, but not only that. All of the teachers for seniors and sophomores have been replaced-**

Students all around the room had different reactions. Some jumped up and shouted things like "What do you mean _'replaced?'_" Others chatted to their friends furiously, talking about the teachers they liked or hated, others did nothing at all, though very few had that reaction. Naruto's reaction was simply hilarious, for he looked around at the others, trying to copy their reactions even though he never attended KHS last year to know what teachers he was dissing out or praising.

The teacher, realizing what part most people were on, piped in and said, "I'm Kakashi by the way. That's Sensei to you."

** Many of you will not be happy with this news but that's too bad.**

"What kind of _principal_ says that!?" Ino exclaimed. "Too bad?!"

**Now for behavior. I am different from Sarutobi-sensei on many different subjects. But I warn you, I will not tolerate anything I don't like. If you are in the office, don't be annoying. Don't start fights. You can be entertaining if you don't mess up my school (its already messed up, I'm talking about cleanliness.) You can act 'cool' as long as you don't do drugs because we go through many measures to make sure every one of you realize how stupid and, as for now, illegal they are. Don't be a whore and no matter how trashy people look I will not change the dress code. If a student is provoked, I couldn't care less if that provoked person did something about it or defended him/herself. That's it.**

**Your principal,**

**-Tsunade**

**And secretary,**

**-Shizune**

**P.S I worked three days on this paper so appreciate it!**

Sakura put down the paper with a face filled with mixed emotions. "What kind of principal says 'Don't be annoying,' and 'don't do anything I don't like?' And says whore!"

Ten-Ten shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but I'm liking the sound of a female principal."

"Who knows, _'she'_ might actually be a guy." Ino said with a slight gesture toward Neji. Ten-Ten and Sakura giggled.

Sakura leaned toward Hinata. "Hey, how come whenever we talk about your cousin you get all quiet?" She asked quietly so Ino and Ten-Ten didn't hear.

"I-I'll tell you g-guys later..." Hinata mumbled. Something was seriously bothering Hinata, but Sakura let it go for the time being. Ino's face suddenly lit up. "That's it!" She exclaimed. "Today we totally need a sleepover! It's going be big and we'll have drinks-"

"Ino," Ten-Ten cut in exasperatedly. "If you're going to talk about drinks, let's not announce it to the world, 'kay?" Hinata looked at the teacher, but he was too busy reading an orange-colored book. She couldn't read the title.

"Anyway, we can invite Naruto, Neji and the other Suna guys if we see them!"

"With the guys?" Sakura arched an eyebrow. "If you're trying to hook me up then forget it."

"Whose house will it be at though?" Ten-Ten interjected. "Sakura's is too small for us and four or so guys and Hinata's dad would go apeshit if he found us drinking alcohol." She tapped her finger on her chin. "So that leaves me and Ino."

"Yours." The three said simultaneously.

"Oh great!" Ten-Ten groaned. "You're all helping me clean up the mess after!"

**_-†‡†‡†-_**

The class went by quickly, and in that short period, Ino, Sakura, Ten-Ten, and Hinata learned two new things. One: Naruto was an idiot. Flat out, a complete idiot. Kakashi-sensei basically told the students to do whatever the heck they wanted to as long as no one left the room or burned down the building. Naruto did both. Ok, he didn't burn down the building, but he almost did. Naruto went outside because he forgot his phone, and next thing everyone knew, he was walking in with a lighter. The teacher didn't even notice he left. So Naruto The Idiot walks in with a lighter and practically shouts, "Hey everybody! Guess what I found in the hallway?!" and holds up the lighter. He has to have not known what it was, because he flips the lid open, and lights it. He drops it on the ground from being startled, and...well, let's just say everyone was glad we didn't have a wooden floor.

The second thing they learned was that Kakashi-sensei could barely pass for a teacher. All he did was sit in his chair (a spinny one by the way. Lucky) and read his book which Sakura could not make out the title of. And that was about it. For Ino, it was a perfect time for planning. The three had to deal with this every year.

"So it's going to be at Ten's house, were going to invite some guys, have some drinks, have a movie and popcorn, and be ready to play 'I've never'." Ino summarized. "Hey! 'I've never' is a great game to get to know other people." Ino defended herself at Saura's skeptic look.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever floats your boat."

"I-I wonder if th-this is what class is going to be l-like every day." Hinata stuttered while looking around at the many obnoxious students.

"I sure hope so!" Ino shouted. "Man, the best class ever. I'm_ so_ not missing Miss. Serdia right now." Hinata winced at their old teachers' name. She was an old hag who did nothing but drown students in piles, and piles, and piles of paperwork. And if she caught a phone in her classroom she would keep it for a month. Sakura shivered.

"AAAHH!" Ten-Ten yelled suddenly. "We forgot to compare schedules!"

Each girl pulled out a piece of yellow paper with their first and last name imprinted across the top in bold letters.

"Let's see..." Sakura hummed. "We obviously have homeroom together. And we also have gym too." Ten-Ten sighed in relief. "Whew. I guess well all look like prostitutes together huh?"

"My name is Karin The Bitch and I approve of this clothing!" Ino said in a high-pitched nasal voice. The gym clothes weren't _that_ bad, it was just the extremely short shorts for people who didn't bring their own and really tight grey KHS t-shirts.

"Ok..." Sakura continued. "Me and Ino have math, we all have gym, me and Ino have social studies...me, Ten-Ten, and Hinata in science and just me and Hina for english. Ten-Ten has technology with Hinata... Ino has everything with us that I just said and there's more, but we don't have much time." She folded the paper up and crammed into the bag. They've all had awfully good luck with schedules for the past few years. There was usually only one class that anyone didn't have with another. They were extremely grateful that it was the same for this year. And speaking of schedules, the bell rang loud and clear across the halls, just like Sakura thought it would, bringing every teen up from their seat; ready to go their next class.

Kakashi-sensei merely waved dismissively without taking his eyes off his book. "Later."

Sakura and Hinata branched off from the others to go down the opposite side of the hall to head to their English class which was going to be taught by a woman named Kurenai-sensei. Sounded nice...

"Hey Hinata?" Sakura said with a soft nudge to her side. "Have you ever heard of a woman named 'Kurenai?"'

Hinata's eyes softened almost immediately and Sakura took that to be a yes before the former even opened her mouth. "Yea. She was my after school t-tutor. She was very nice to m-me and almost like a second m-mother. She is extremely kind."

Sakura let out a breath. "That's a relief." So far, first and second period was perfect; though second period only sounded like fun because they haven't even gone to that class yet.

"So who do you think'll be in our class with us?" Sakura said to Hinata curiously. She shrugged. "I-I don't know. I w-wasn't looking at other peoples schedules."

"Hey! Kurenai's your next class, huh? How bout I walk you ov-"

"Augh!" They heard a girl yell at the guys suggestive tone. "How do you know that, you stalker?!"

"Uhhh." The boy gave a nervous chuckle. "People...and things..."

Hinata and Sakura flinched as they heard a loud stomp and crunch.

"Owwwww." He moaned. Hinata and Sakura turned the corner to see a teen with brown hair and triangular markings on his cheeks hopping around and clutching his foot."

"Kiba!" Hinata shouted. "Geez. It's like you suddenly know everyone now." Sakura muttered. Kiba looked up to see Hinata and then broke into a grin similar to Naruto's.

He opened his arms totally forgetting his toe. "Hinata! How you been, Squirt? Geez never knew you'd be here too." Hinata (Sakura nearly fell over and was positive she was tripping) ran towards him and jumped into his arms for a warm hug.

"Hehehe. Geez, Squirt. You've gotten a lot taller since I last saw you."

Sakura then knew how Ino felt in Kakashi-sensei's class. "Wait, wait, wait.. You two know each other?" She backed up when she saw Kiba's 'really?' face. "I mean..._ how_ do you guys know each other?"

Brrrinng! Brrrrriiiinnnnggg!

"Dammit!" Sakura cursed. "Hinata, you have a lot of explaining...to...do?" Once again, Sakura thought she was tripping. Kiba was chatting with Hinata who was chatting back way more than Sakura had ever seen her talk. And Kiba was giving Hinata his NUMBER!

"Da fuck?" Sakura muttered blankly.

_'Poor Ino.'_ She thought. _'It sucks to not be involved sometimes.'_

She walked with Hinata and Kiba almost zombie-like to her next class.

"Oh hello! You're just in time! We were just about to start class." Greeted a bright voice. Kurenai-sensei was beautiful, firstly. She had long curly locks of black hair, and red eyes that were crimson unlike Karin's almost pink eyes. She was smiling such a warm, bright smile that Sakura couldn't help but smile back...then Hinata once again did the unexpected which made Sakura think 'what the heck!?'

"Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata yelled with literally pouncing on the woman.

_'Oh yeah! Hinata did mention her being her tutor.'_

And Kiba did the same. He yelled "Kurenai-sensei!" And glomped her.

"Kiba? Hinata?!" Said the startled teacher. She looked down at the two wrapped around her waist and smiled even brighter. "Oh! I'm so glad you're both in my class!" She turned towards Kiba. (Almost having to look up because of how tall he was.) "Especially you, Kiba. You know exactly how I deal with misbehavior, right?" Kiba swallowed loudly.

"And you, Hinata." Kurenai's smile almost turned motherly. "Your dad's been treating you ok?"

Hinata's dad almost ignored her 24/7, and only payed attention to her younger sister Hanabi. He called her weak and a failure and removed her from being next in line for being the head of the clan just because she wasn't born a genius or prodigy like Hanabi was. It was like she never even existed her in her own house. Hanabi didn't even like her..her own sister.

"Kurenai-sensei!" Hinata squeaked. "Th-the c-class is st-staring!"

They all turned around to face the class ad Sakura who was staring blankly at them. It was like they were on some sort of reality T.V show. "Oh..." Kurenai said sheepishly. "Sorry class... Umm well. Continuing on..."

She let go of Hinata and Kiba. "I have assigned seats only for today because we are going to be partnered up and will be doing a fun game today."

They all groaned at assigned seats, perked up at hearing it was only for today and partners, and half groaned and half perked up some more when they heard about a game.

"Now listen up for you partners and will explain the rest after.

"Kiba Inuzuka and Katie Hasther." Kiba gave a loud wolf-whistle when he was paired with the girl he was talking to before Hinata and Sakura came in. "Tara Jamora and Aiden Kane."

And more random names were called, and Sakura started to wander off into la-la land which was broken all too soon by a loud voice that she thought would always be heard too much.

"That's my name! That's me! Naruto Uzumaki! Believe it!" Naruto stood up in his seat while pointing at Kurenai-sensei ecstatically when he heard his name.

"Isn't _one_ period with that idiot enough?" Sakura grumbled. But she was smiling on the inside because he would undoubtedly bring some entertainment to this year.

"As I was saying," Kurenai continued. "Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuuga." Sakura glanced at Naruto and she could've sworn his eyebrow slightly twitched. Looking at Hinata, she also noticed that she looked slightly paler.

_'What is up with Hinata and knowing all these people!?'_

"And lastly; Sakura Haruno and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Aahh! Why is she with my Sasu-baby?" A girl pouted.

"No! He's my Uchi-hottie!" Another shouted.

"What did you drink this morning!? Your so in denial. He's mine!" This one literally screamed. Fangirls were another problem in KHS. Annoying, slutty, bratty, and spoiled. Yay.

Everyone in the class turned their heads to look over to the side of the room where a group of (slutty) girls were squabbling over a guy who was in the center of it all.

"Girls!" Kurenai yelled. "Take your seat; that is enough!"

The girls reluctantly sat down with some grumbling and curses and Sakura got her first glance at her partner/Sasuke/Sasu-baby/Uchi-hottie.

He was a handsome teen with spiky blue hair that was so dark that it could be easily mistaken for black. It also resembled a chicken ass, and Sakura almost burst into laughter at the resemblance. He wore baggy black jeans with a white short sleeved shirt that had a high collar and a white and red fan symbol on the back. Sakura wasn't going to lie; he was definitely one fiine piece of meat. But she wasn't really the person to jump on a random guy just because he was hot.

On the other hand, Hinata too had some partner problems. If you could call it that. She was just standing there, pale and slightly shaking. Most people would just glance over and simply shrug it off, but Sakura had only seen that expression once before, and it was something really bad with her dad. She couldn't stop herself from bursting into tears when she told the girls what had happened.

Naruto still had his usual grin, but it looked...different. Almost nervous.

"Alright, now. Listen up." Kurenai interrupted her thoughts. "Get with your partners and get a sheet of paper. On your paper, list some facts about you, and some questions about your partner. After that, your partner will write on a paper their guess on your personality." Kurenai said with her ever present smile. "Whoever gets the closest to their partner's actual personality gets to make them do something completely opposite of what they would normally do tomorrow, as long as it doesn't break the school rules. If you don't," she smirked evilly. "You fail. Yup, this is for a grade class. So I hope you all payed attention because I'm not repeating anything."

Everyone groaned as they slowly got up from their seats while shooting their partners a look. Sakura walked over to Sasuke because he obviously wasn't going to get off his lazy ass and do it himself. Naruto walked over to Hinata. The two girls took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. Guys were really something.

**`[=/•°†°•\=]`**

"Ok, ok, ok!" Naruto said excitedly. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki! My dream is to be acknowledged by everyone and to be able to mean something to the whole world. I love to eat ramen, my favorite animal is a fox 'cuz they're just so cool, my favorite color is orange, and my hair is naturally like this." He said proudly. It was kind of strange that a guy would take so much pride in his hair being the way it was naturally, but whatever floats his boat, as Sakura always says.

"You name is Hinata Hyuuga, right?" Naruto backpedaled. "I-I mean…. Your name has to be that because the teacher said that ummm...during roll call?" Hinata gave a nod. Though she wasn't even there for roll call.

"M-my name is Hinata Hyuuga, I like to cook, my favorite color is purple, and I like to hang out w-with my best f-friends." She said. It was much shorter than Naruto's, but she couldn't really think of anything better. Actually one more thing. "And yes, "she added. "My hair is naturally l-like this t-too."

"Cool!" Naruto grinned. "You want to go first with the questions?" He asked Hinata.

"It's ok. You can go."

"Ok ok ok. First one: are your eyes naturally like that?" She nodded modestly. "Cool! Okay, next! Have you ever been to Ichiraku Ramen?"

Hinata bit her lip in thought for a second or two before finally shaking her head 'no.' Naruto gave a huge gasp and fell out of his chair. "WHAT!?" he yelled. "You're joking!" Hinata shook her head again. "Wow. That's crazy!" He breathed while climbing back onto his chair. "Ahh...oh well...last question...hmmm...are you usually shy?"

"Y-yes...I guess so." Hinata murmured. "How come?" Naruto asked. He apparently didn't know the meaning of 'last.'

Naruto realized this, and out his hands up sheepishly. "Sorry. You're turn." Normally, Hinata would've just let Naruto go on ahead, but since that topic was a rather touchy one, she went on herself.

"Umm…" she thought for a second. "A-are you n-new in Konoha?"

Naruto nodded rapidly. (He was hilariously similar to a hyper/sugar-high squirrel.) "Yeah, yeah! I just moved here a week ago from Suna!"

"That far?" Hinata said incredulously. Naruto was suddenly struck with a 'brilliant' idea. He nodded again.

"Was it hot there?" she asked curiously. "Did it ever rain?" How did you grow crops?"

"You see," he started proudly. "Our Kage **(A/N president)** is like some kind of walking gold mine or something, because he always comes up with _loads_ of gold to pay for everything. We have some special greenhouses for our crops, but that sometimes doesn't even work that well. And it _does_ rain, but only, like, a week overall per year."

"Wow." Hinata breathed in awe

"And I also lived here in Konoha before I moved back to Suna..." he said slowly. He looked at her with unnerving intentness. Hinata paled so much he was worried that she was going to pass out. That was a good thing though, because it meant that she_ did _remember.

"Just a little fun fact there." He waved off. He was triumphant in the inside, though.

"Hey," he pointed out to change the subject. "You didn't stutter!" Hinata blushed deeply. "Oh, and by the way, that was three questions."

**_-o0( )0o-_**

Sakura had to admit, working on a project with a hundred fuming girls glaring daggers at her and a complete smartass who had a comment for every word that came out of her mouth, wasn't as hard as it sounded. Sasuke was something else for one thing. He only seemed to smirk or look annoyed and never seemed to smile. He was between being emo and just normal. He was a complete smart ass that liked to tick everyone off, unless Sakura was just a special case, which made question asking extremely difficult. And then he had those moments where he was only a mystery to solve. So, all in all, Sasuke Uchiha was confusing, irritating, normal-ish, and emo-ish.

"So. Are you going to glare at me the whole time, or can we continue on?" Sasuke asked with his ever-present smirk. Sakura took a deep breath. "Fine. What idiot stuck that pole up your ass and decided to make you so annoying?! I desperately want to know."

Sasuke shrugged. "Answer: I don't know. Last question." Sakura fumed. So far this was going nowhere. "Ok…"

'_Let's just play nice for now, Sakura,'_ She thought to herself. She thought hard.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Yeah…" Sasuke's tone and face curiously softened. "Just one though."

"Who?" she asked. Sasuke lost the look and smirked. Great. "That was your last question…Pinky." She turned red and grit her teeth at the nickname. Dammit. Sasuke's onyx eyes sparkled mischievously. "I have a feeling this question is asked a lot so I guess I'll ask too. Is your hair-?" "Yes!" she yelled. "Yes, my hair is 100% natural." She got even angrier and glared some more. He _so _did that purposely. She even crossed her arms. _The earrings are off._

"Hmmmm…do _you _have any siblings?" Sakura shook her head 'no' with her ever-present glare. "Are you always this annoying and so loud?"

"I am not annoying!" Sakura shouted some more. _'This prat is driving me crazy! And why is he still smirking?!' _

"That was your last question." She said in relief.

"Actually, no. It wasn't."

_'Remember his words. Just don't be loud.' _"What do you mean?" She growled.

"Well, I didn't get to finish my first because you interrupted." He said like he was explaining it to a two-year-old. "So this is my make-up."

"You prat!' Sakura exploded. "You knew this was going to happen! That's not fair1 That was _so _Ugh" she groaned loudly. "You are _so_ a question infuriating!"

"Look, if you're that mad about it then I'll skip it. I'm just proving that I'm right and you're wrong."

"Just go." Sakura said, ignoring the last comment.

"It's fine."

"Look, just stop rubbing it in and go already."

"Rubbing what in?"

"…."

"That I'm right?"

"No!"

"Yes."

"Never."

"Always."

"Are not."

"Am too."

"Are not."

"Am too."

"YOU ARE _NO-_"

"Haruno and Uchiha!?" Kurenai yelled. "Are you two finished?"

"No ma'am." They both said sheepishly. "Then quit yelling and please continue with your work." It was always embarrassing getting in trouble, but at least Sasuke's stupid smirk was finally gone.

"Hn. Whatever."

"HA! One zero, Sakura!" She cheered with a little self-high-five. She didn't even know what she did, but it was Sasuke's turn to look annoyed. He glared and his stupid fans gave him sympathetic pats on the back while Sakura childishly stuck her tongue out.

**(_O-0*I*0-O_)**

"So, Hinata, who do you think is closest?" Naruto asked after they compared their thought on each other's personalities. He scratched his chin in thought, and looked to her for her opinion.

"A-actually-" "AHH!" Naruto interrupted loudly like the buzzers on America's Got Talent. "No stuttering is allowed." Naruto said with a grin. Hinata blushed.

"Ahem..." she gave a small cough to hide her giggles. Naruto 'tsk'ed at this like a mother scolding her child. "People want to hear and see you laugh, Hinata. Don't hide it!" He chastised. "Just let loose."

Hinata nodded. "Just let loose." she repeated.

"You can finish what you were saying before I interrupted. " Naruto said sheepishly. "Sorry about that, by the way."

"It's ok." She waved off. "I don't really want to present my paper, so I was going to say that you can just go ahead and say yours was closest." Hinata was starting to regret her decision as soon as Naruot's 'I-just-pranked-someone' grin slipped onto his face. No going back now.

"Ok." Kurenai called out. Just in time. "I want the person who got their partners personality closest to correct to read them out loud." Hinata nearly died. Now she _definitely_ wanted to take back what she said.

"Remember Hinata: let loose." Naruto said with a thumbs-up. This slightly cheered her up. Slightly. That was crushed when Kurenai called her and Naruto's name first.

Naruto fakely coughed loudly as if he was clearing his throat for a world-changing speech. "I present to yo-"he started in a deep voice. He was interrupted by a voice at the other side of the room. "Hurry up, Dobe."

"Shut up, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto yelled back. Hinata thought she heard Sakura giggling loudly. Kurenai gave an annoyed cough.

'Ok," he started again, though without the fake voice. "My guess on Hinata's personality. I think that she is someone who is very kind and always has everyone's best interests at heart, always looking out for her best buds. She is very patient, and I bet very rarely gets angry, if not never. I bet she makes loads of friends," his voice almost sounded envious, "and that she is very loyal to them. She's very likeable and strong in the inside with a will that's almost impossible to break. Though she needs to work on letting loose and being more confident and trusting herself, overall she's a wonderful person."

"AWWWWWWWW!" Hinata heard Sakura call out with a squeal. Ino must've told her about earlier in Kakashi-sensei's. Hinata buried her head in her hands.

Naruto rubbed his neck sheepishly and looked over at Kurenai expectantly. Her eyes sparkled. "I have never heard anything closer to the truth. That, Uzumaki, is an A in the grade book."

Naruto cheeed.

Hinata fainted.

Naruto panicked. "OMIGOD! HINATA ARE YOU OK?! ARE YOU STILL BREATHING?! OMIGOSH WHY ARE YOUR EYES CLOSED BREATHE, HINATA, BREAATHHHEEE!"

Kurenai and Sakura both laughed weirdly. "Naruto, you idiot." Sakura giggled. "Hinata does that all the time. She's not dead she just fainted."

"Oh." he sighed in relief. 'Wait, what? IS SHE OK?! WHY DID SHE FAINT? IS SHE SICK?!"

Kurenai coughed loudly. "Ahem..uh okay. Next, Kiba Inuzuka and Katie Hasther." Naruto calmed down and pocketed his paper. Nothing was even written on the paper. Not a single letter, but as long as the teacher didn't know it, it was an A grade for him.

Kiba stood up. "Ill go." He announced. "Ok I think…"

Kiba was kicked out of the room after the first sentence and some (coughalotcough) perverted comments. Other names were called and the results were funny, sarcastic, many insulting, and very few (like Naruto's) were serious. Then came Sasuke and Sakura's.

Sasuke stood up when their names were called. Hinata, who Naruto woke up promising this was going to be entertaining, saw Sakura give him a glare. Sasuke almost looked like he wanted to childishly stick his tongue out at her. Almost.

"I'll be reading." He said simply. "I think that Sakura's hair is totally fake though she denies it." Hinata didn't even have to look to see Sakura fuming because of how many people said just about the same thing about her hair. It was cool to show off at first, but after a while it got annoying."I also think that she's always this annoying because it's simply too hard to be that annoying to just one person. She's temperamental, obnoxious, and doesn't know when to hold her tongue..but," He looked like he didn't want to say what was coming up next. "She's very amusing and undoubtedly has many friends who she wouldn't hesitate to stand up for." Sakura looked like she had been slapped. But Sasuke wasn't done yet. "She would never turn her back on someone who needs her and is probably good at comforting people when they need it because of her out-going attitude and go-lucky personality…and..Do I really have to continue?" He said exasperatedly.

Sakura answered him. "No, it's fine." She said with a nearly-invisible smile. It was still there though. Sasuke was about to sit down when he remembered something. "Oh," he added. "Remember; I was only nice because this was only for a grade. Anyone who comments on this has to deal with me. Naruto." Naruto grinned.

'_Way to ruin the moment,'_ Sakura thought. '_Wait a minute, how the ell does he know all that about me from less than an hour?! Hinata's was obvious so no comparison, and I was just a bitch to him on purpose. How doesn he get a 'go-lucky' personality?'_

* * *

**A/N Whew this was long... 12 thousand is pretty big for me. . Also, this is very important. I hate it when people say 'oh, I already know that so and so is going to date him,' and stuff. That's also why I don't put the pairings in my summaries (sometimes). I mean, tell me if I'm wrong, but isn't the romance and who ends up with who make the story enjoyable. The surprise and suspense and tension and fluffiness! Anyway, my point is that don't place your bets yet, because this is HIGHSCHOOL people. They're going to be breakups, and betrayal, and all that stuff. So if you're a fan of any pairing that you're not thinking is going to be here after this chapter, KEEP ON READING AND FIND OUT! I know for sure that there's going to be at least one breakup and many betrayals. Sorry if the character development isn't going along as good as many would expect; for me its pretty hard especially at the very beginning of fic. Anyways...Reviews make me smile and make my story better with constructive criticism. So don't lose hope, my leetle jellybeans! Tootles! ;P**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Ok! Peoplez! Here's the next chapter! Hehehehe I made it nice and long for the wait. Oh well. For once I really have nothing else to say. Wow, I'm actually being boring, Gasp! On with the chapter. **

**P.S a shoutout to my BFF Olivia!**

* * *

Sakura was in a happy/angry mood. Ok, it sounds hard because they're both opposite, but it really isn't when you're a pink-haired girl with dreams about murdering a certain Uchiha and yet those dreams were the one liked most. And she loved her classes so far; Kakashi-sensei's class was perfect (since they did absolutely nothing but whatever they wanted) along with Kurenai-sensei's class and Sakura's elective, art. The bad part though, was that Sasuke was apparently in all, her homeroom (Kakashi) second period, fourth period and fifth, and she didn't know why but he made her so mad with his smirks and all-knowing attitude and his annoying 'I'm-better-than-everything-and-anyone' look. And then there's also the more-than-slightly important fact that she didn't know where her next class was and the halls were strangely deserted of anyone; help for directions wasn't an option. She didn't know whether she should be smiling or frowning as she walked down to where she hoped was math.

'More Sasuke and god knows who else.' She thought grumpily. At least Ino and Ten-Ten were in that class with her too. Ten-Ten could be scary when she wanted to be, and Ino hated smart-asses even though she acted like one herself.

Sakura broke out of her jumbled up thoughts and pulled out her schedule again. It said Asuma-sensei room 347. Sakura turned the corner and saw that she was in the 200's. Again. She nearly ripped apart the schedule in frustration. She had walked around in some sort of large circle and was back to where she started.

"Where is it?!" She hissed in frustration. Now she knew she should be frowning. She turned around and went to the left. Back into the 100's, which was also where she's been. She knew her school like the back of her hand, but since all the sophomore classes switched where they were supposed to be, it was really confusing and she had to ignore the part of her mind that memorized the old classroom locations, not the new.

"Omigosh" Sakura yelled with a foot stomp. "This is why I hate first days!" She crossed her arms and took a few deep breaths in an attempt to cool off. Maybe keeping calm really did add bonus to you or your luck, carma, or something because the next thing she knew, three people (though they were probably three of the most intimidating people she had ever seen,) were standing right in front of her, like her knights in shining armor.

One was a girl who was probably seventeen (a year older than Sakura) with sandy hair pulled back into four ponytails. She had green-ish blue fierce eyes, and Sakura felt oddly intimidated standing in front of her; she was scary. She was wearing short grey shorts with a elbow-length sleeved grey shirt that had a crimson sash tied around her waist. Turns out, she was from Suna (not really surprising because of the sandy-blonde hair) because of the headband around her forehead that bore the symbol.

The other two were boys and weren't any less intimidating than the girl with the ponytails. One was about her age and the other a year older like the girl in front of her and both were from Suna too. The one that looked her age, had messy red hair that popped out against his pale skin and sleep-deprived eyes that were green and looked like they had been covered with layers and layers of eyeliner, but Sakura had a feeling make-up wasn't the case. He had his arms crossed and his face was completely emotionless; probably because he literally had no eyebrows. He also had the Japanese Kanji symbol for 'love,' written on the top right corner of his forehead in red paint. He wore simple red jeans, and a brown shirt, nothing else. (Except for his underclothes, hopefully.)

The older had purple face paint all over in an intricate pattern. It was kind of creepy, but hey, we got to respect our neighboring lands and their weird uh...traditions? He had spiky brown hair and tan skin with light brown eyes. He wore a grey t-shirt that said 'MEOW' in purple letters and brown capris. He looked like every other guy from Suna, unlike the red-head with his pale skin. Then again, Sakura never really paid any attention to Suna students so she had no idea what was the norm for them when it came to looks.

"Ummm." Sakura said, completely lost at what else to say. She had no idea who any of them were and the one with ponytails and the redhead looked kind of scary, but the guy with face paint looked friendly enough. "Hi." She said simply.

"Is that it?" The Blondie said with a hint of smugness in her voice for some reason. "If that is, then well just be moving along."

Sakura's eyes widened when she realized what she was hinting at. "Oh no! I do need something actually!" The brunette smirked at her frantic little arm wave.

"I-uh...I'm kind of lost and I'm trying to find Asuma-sensei's class in room 347. Can you help me?"

"Nope." Blondie smiled widely. "Sorry." Sakura suddenly hated the blonde very, very much. That annoying little attitude and her infuriating smile/smirk….

"Thanks anyway." Sakura grumbled as she made to go. But the ponytails chick wasn't done yet. "I can't. But my little brother here-" she nudged the red-head a little bit. Her smirk was gone, and her smile was almost encouraging. "Gaara has old man Asuma's class too, and knows where it is. He can show you."

Gaara gave an almost unnoticeable glare towards his sister. "Temari." He said in a scratchy voice. "I told you already that I don't intend to be making any friends during my stay here. Leave me be."

The brown haired one gave Sakura the 'he can seriously be annoyingly difficult' look that most older siblings gave their younger brothers or sisters behind Gaara's back. Sakura stifled a giggle. He reminded her of both Naruto and Kiba.

"Why jumping to conclusions?" Temari said wryly. "Nobody said anything about friend making." Gaara stayed silent for a moment. He surprised Sakura, the brunette, and Temari when he promptly turned around and began walking away. Sakura had no idea where to, but she was assuming it was Asuma-sensei's, so she followed. She turned her head over her shoulder and gave a quick grateful wave to Temari, who she didn't really hate anymore, and the other guy.

Little did Sakura know, the latter (whose name was really Kankuro) was staring at her ass a little longer than most women would have liked. Had Sakura caught him, he would've been put in a hospital for weeks.

She skipped part of the way to catch up to Gaara and finally kept pace beside him. It was like walking next to a brick wall. He walked way too fast to be called walking and not jogging, and he kept the same stoic look and crossed arms the rest of the way, and his eyebrowless eyes made it seem like he was glaring at everything. She even felt stupid talking to him because he never acknowledged she was even alive. He was quite the pleasant fellow.

"Are you actually going to talk to me, or keep on pretending that I don't even exist?" Sakura said with both curiosity and annoyance. He still ignored her. If there was anything Sakura probably hated the most too, it was probably being ignored, and it was by someone she barely even knew and did do anything to.

"Why are you so silent?" She asked a little whinily. "Do you ever talk?" Gaara continued on "walking." Sakura was beginning to see a lot more mini-Sasuke's than she liked.

"Heeeelllooo?!" Sakura said loudly. "Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hel-"

Gaara stopped abruptly. "Are you always this annoying" He asked (more like said) indifferently. Sakura grinned. He finally spoke, even though he insulted her in another Sasuke-ish way.

"Hehe." She chuckled victoriously. "You do talk." Gaara continued walking.

"I haven't seen you in KHS last year so you must be new." She said curiously as she caught up to the redhead. He nodded. At least he was acknowledging her existence, which was a much better improvement. Which reminded her that Ino was probably going to want to know that there were more Suna transfers. Though Sakura doubted Pig wanted a brick wall at the overnight.

And that's when it hit her. (Ahaha brick wall, hit her, get it?) This year, she was going to make Gaara The Antisocial,Gaara the Social! At the end of the year he would be talking as much as her and Ino and re-grow his eyebrows like a normal person! Hopefully. Sakura just couldn't read his expression at all. Next thing you know, Sakura was going to shave her eyebrows the next day. Which reminded her...

'I have to dress and act like Karin tomorrow,' she thought dispersedly. It was Sasuke's choice in Kurenai-sensei's class and when he told her, well, let's just say Ino knew that look and had to bring out some fast emergency chocolate.

It took Sakura almost two minutes to realize that Gaara had long since stopped walking and was in front of a classroom door, and she only noticed it when she looked up to try and imagine him with eyebrows.

"This is it." He said dully. Sakura skipped over with a mischievous smile.

"Ok." She said simply. She opened the door, luckily class hadn't started yet, and searched the room for Ino and Ten-Ten so she could sit next to them. Her heart plummeted when she saw Ino sitting next to Sasuke, leaning over with a mad blush and flirtatious smile and half-lidded eyes. She was leaning closer and Sakura couldn't help but feel sort of happy when Sasuke realized how close Ino was and started inching away. Ino didn't take the hint.

Sakura turned and gave a quick wave to Gaara, who paid no attention, and went over to Ino with the best realistic smile she could muster to hide her disappointment.

"Hey Ten-Ten, Ino." Sakura said with half-heated smile. She turned to Sasuke and broke into a glare. "Asshole." Sasuke nodded at her (somewhat pitiful) insult with a smirk. "Pinky." Sakura's eye twitched.

Ino looked between them and broke their little glare contest when she coughed rather loudly. "Ahem. As I was saying Sasuke-kun-"

"Ino," Sakura said exasperatedly. "Did you even get to meet him before you pounced on him?" Ino glared. "For your information, I am not a whore." She said with a glare.

Sakura looked confused and Ten-Ten slightly cocked her head. "I never said that." The pinkette said with a frown. "I'm only saying you should get to know someone before wanting to start a relationship."

"Ummmm. Hello! That's what I was doing."

"It looked more like flirting if you ask me." Ten-Ten pointed out. Ino shot her a look and barked, "Well I didn't ask you." Ten-Ten looked taken aback.

"Are you PMSing?" She said. "If not, then I don't know why you just said something that."

"Free country. That's why."

Sakura cut in with a slightly angrier look. "Ino, I don't know why you're taking this so seriously. Its ok, just forget I said anything."

Ino wrinkled her nose. "You just want Sasuke all to yourself, don't you?"

Sasuke's mouth was slightly opened. He was probably a little amused at the three for fighting over him, but if he had sad so out loud, Sakura would've hit him for saying that she was fighting over him.

"It's not that!" Ten-Ten and Sakura protested in unison.

"Girls in the back, the bell already rang, and I'm getting ready to speak. Please have a seat." Not realizing that they were standing and viciously in each other's faces, they sat back down and faced their teacher with slight attitude.

He was a man probably in his late thirties, a lot older looking than Kakashi-sensei. He had a beard, and tan skin with a fruit-ish looking nose. He looked like he usually smoked -and the ashtray on his desk gave it away-, but he didn't look like a bad person though. On the board behind him, it said 'Asuma-Sensei.'

"Asuma-sensei!" Someone said in surprise. He had his head in his hand with a slightly shocked look, but it looked bored and half-asleep at the same time. Sakura wondered how many student-teacher reunions she would see today.

He had his hair tied up so the top was spiky and looked like the top of a pineapple. He looked like he almost never slept, though he only had light grey circles under his eyes unlike Gaara's heavy eye-liner looking ones. Really, that was all there was to him, nothing really special.

"Shikamaru!" Ino and Asuma-shouted at the same time. Ino and Asuma stared at each other oddly for a moment. Shikamaru's head rose up from its perch on his palm and at Ino. "Ino? Asuma?"

Ino started to randomly giggle. "That's right lazy ass. You're stuck with me this year." Shikamaru groaned and Ino laughed like her usual mischievous self again.

"Ummm..how do you know him?" Ten-Ten asked cautiously. She didn't want to get snapped at again, but Ino acted like her usual self and grinned.

"Shika and my dad were in a band called the Shika-Ino-Cho group since they were teens. They split up about two years ago when Shika's dad was stationed in Suna."

"So he's another guy from Suna?" Sakura cut in. Ino nodded. The blonde stood up and pushed in her chair. "I'm going to sit by Shika for a little to catch up in the latest stuff, ok?" She said. The other two girls nodded and Ino rushed over to sit in the empty seat next to the pineapple-head.

"So today is the first day back in school and first day in sophomore year. I'm going to be nice and let you just waste away the period by getting to know each other and chat. Those of you who have Kakashi should be used to this." Asuma said with a chuckle.

Ino cheered and looked beside her to start chatting to Shikamaru when she saw that he appeared to be fast asleep. He wasn't.

"Oi. Oi! Shika!" Ino said into his ear. She was about to poke him in the arm when his hand caught her finger.

"I'm not asleep."

"You haven't changed a bit." Said an amused Ino.

"Same for you."

"Tch. Always such small, simple answers, yet they annoy the crap outta me." Ino chided. "On a different subject; you and I are almost sixteen, huh?"

Shikamaru smirked a bit. "So what kind of party are you going to have this year? Is it going to be on your dream cruise this time?" He scoffed.

"Actually, I don't really want anything special this year. I just want it to be something small for a change; maybe a day at the beach with my friends, that's all.

Shikamaru's eyebrows shot up like they were trying to escape his head. "Now that's a surprise."

Ino rolled her eyes. "What are you doing then?" The Nara sighed wistfully. "A nice day all to myself, just looking at the clouds while lying on a nice patch of green grass on a warm day with a light cooling breeze."

"Picky much?" Ino scoffed. He gave a short laugh. Typical.

"Y'know," Ino started curiously. "I've always wondered why you always have those grey bags under your eyes even though you sleep all the time."

"It's because I don't sleep." He said with his voice slightly muffled by the hand his mouth was resting on.

"Huh?" She said in a puzzled voice. "But..."

Shikamaru sighed. "You know my dad; a famous retired general and top strategist, and not to mention his dad was a famous scientist with outstanding discoveries. You know that I come from a family of 'geniuses.' Well it isn't all a good thing because us 'geniuses' can't ever sleep properly because we always have random thoughts, questions, and even strategies popping into our heads every second. And didn't I already explain this to you before?"

Ino tapped her chin in thought. "Now that I think about it, all Nara's that I've seen have always looked like they put on eyeliner." She said, ignoring the last part. "I used to think that they all were just gay." Shikamaru sighed and put his head down to 'sleep.'

"Lazy ass." Ino muttered. But if you looked really, really closely, there was no mistaking that small knowing smile on her face.

"You haven't changed one bit."

Shikamaru was thinking the same thing with the same smile that was rarely ever genuine and seen. 'Still the same Ino. Can't help but say I'm glad though.'

Ino's eyes suddenly widened and a grin suddenly spread across her face. "Ahhh!" She yelled. "Shika, Shika, Shika, Shika, Shiiiiika!" She said while slapping his arm.

Shikamaru frowned. 'No,' he thought. 'Never mind. Forget anything I just thought a second ago.'

And 'Shika' just put his head back down with a stifled yawn while Ino rambled on about a sleepover and him coming and malls, and movies and clothes. And blah blah blah. He sighed.

'How troublesome.'

†-*∅*-†

Meanwhile, while Sakura was boredly looking around the room, she noticed something so funny, she literally fell off her chair and started choking on air (and spit). Ten-Ten noticed it too and had to cover her mouth from laughing obnoxiously and getting the whole class to stare. No, that would only ruin the moment.

On the back of the room, there sat Sasuke and Gaara. Sasuke had his elbows on his desk and his hands covering his mouth while he scowled and stared intently at Gaara who, almost tauntingly, simply crossed his arms and stared back in that ever-present eyebrowless glare. It was like a contest of the power of the emo. Then, Sasuke did a totally un-Sasuke-like thing; he looked up at where Gaara's eyebrows would've been and said, "You shaved you brows." And the way he said it made Sakura and Ten-Ten laugh harder. Gaara remained indifferent and simply said, "And your hair is like the back end of a duck." And Sasuke nodded. The staring continued. And so did the laughing.

Ten-Ten's hand slipped when she was in her fit, and a really, really loud laugh came out and everyone stared including, sadly, Sasuke and Gaara. Ten-Ten stuck out a tongue at the people staring and turned back to Sakura. "I noticed Neji in this class." She said abruptly. "He's reading a law book. On the first day!" Sakura looked over and saw Ten-Ten was right. That book was thick, and Neji was halfway through and reading like no tomorrow; you would think it was some best-selling action novel. The pinkette turned back to face Ten-Ten, but she saw that Ten-Ten had gotten up and was walking to the empty seat next to Neji with a set look.

"Seems like everyone's got a partner this class." Sakura muttered with a small sigh. "Ino's with that pineapple-head and Ten's off with Neji. I'm wondering how many little reunions people can see in a day."

"Well doesn't someone look depressed."

"Mai?"

|_-(+)-_|

Neji was quietly reading when a hand snatched his book away -but not before dog-earing the page- and closed it. He looked to the empty seat beside him and found that Ten-Ten sitting in it with her arms crossed and a grin tugging at her lips.

She went straight to the point. "What class do you have gym?" Neji blinked. "That should not be of any concern to you." He replied.

Ten-Ten uncrossed her arms and opened her hand which was holding a crumpled piece of paper. "Oh? Then I guess I'll just check myself." That paper was his schedule. Neji's eyebrow twitched as Ten-Ten victoriously opened his crumpled schedule and read its contents greedily. "Aha!" She shouted triumphantly. "You have the same gym class as me." If Neji hadn't been such a proper person he would've groaned right then. It just proved her point that most Hyuuga's could never just let go.

Ten-Ten stood up from her chair and pointed at Neji. "Neji Hyuuga!" She said. "I challenge you to a sparring match during gym!"

"No."

The brunette frowned. "What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean, that no, I do not accept your challenge." Neji said bluntly. Ten-Ten seethed, still in her finger-pointing position, and watched with fury as Neji opened his law book and began to read.

"How can you not accept my challenge!?" Ten-Ten screeched. She hated when he did this. It was always the same, he refused to fight her. And he was the only person she wanted to fight the most.

"Because you are a woman, and I would not stoop so low as to lay a finger on any female let alone intentionally injure her." Ten-Ten turned red. If there was anything she hated the most, it was stuck-up sexist guys. In fact, anyone who was sexist was immediately on her 'The People I Hate' list. Neji was one of the worst; he would always refuse to fight her in Tae-Kwon-Do matches and whenever he was forced to, he would go easy. He didn't care that Ten-Ten would just stand there, rejected while he refused to fight her just because she was a girl. And he also seemed to feel like she was below him all the time.

"Neji...fine." Ten-Ten said. Neji was slightly taken aback; Ten-Ten had never given in so easily before. It was too good to be true.

"There are plenty of other people who are better and less stuck up than you." She said. "Whatever. I doubt you would've given me a challenge. I'm better off not being disappointed ad wasting my time."

'Of course.' Neji thought sourly. 'She couldn't let it go without a few insults..' Neji felt something odd though.. it was almost like he should know something and it was right there but he couldn't find it out. He almost missed the smirk on Ten-Ten's face as she turned around. He grabbed her wrist before she could walk away and she let out a small gasp.

"What are you planning." Neji said cooly. It wasn't a question; it was a demand. "And don't tell me 'nothing.'" Ten-Ten looked into his eyes; it wasn't unlike Hinata's, but they held none of the kindness and warmth Hinata's did. She wanted nothing more than to change his opinion on things, and definitely for him to be less of a prick.

"Well, it was nothing." She said just as coldly. "Now if you will let go of my hand..." Neji didn't let go.

"What is it."

A smirk flickered on Ten-Ten's face for merely a second, but Neji caught it and barely had time to react as Ten-Ten brought her free hand up and put it on top of the hand Neji was holding onto and formed a 'V.' She took a step to his left and draped her elbow over his arm as she locked his arm and made him instinctively bend forward. He would've been completely locked as soon as Ten-Ten made his hand absolutely straight, but Neji was faster and twisted to where he was facing her again and grabbed her hands in his. She totally caught him by surprise and she knew it. She had a smirk on, fully visible.

"Maybe I won't be disappointed after all."

|°•`~_~`•°|

"So you're in this class too!" Sakura said brightly. She was glad to be met up with one of her buddies from last year to break her left-out mood and also to have someone to chit-chat with.

The black-haired girl smiled and nodded. "Yeah." She said simply.

Sakura wagged a finger at her. "Not as talkative as usual, huh?" Mai shrugged. 'So much for having someone to talk with,' Sakura thought with a pout.

Looking around, Sakura realized that she was surrounded by people chatting with others they had met up with recently, and that she really had no one. Except for Mai, who really wasn't up for chatting. Mai was quiet by nature, but usually opened up at some moments and would always crack sarcastic and witty comments. She was really pretty and that was a little piece in her great persuasion skills. She would make a perfect cop, and Sakura joked around that she would make a good assassin or spy. Mai must've not liked that idea very much because as soon as the word assassin came out of Sakura's mouth she seemed to have a frustrated look.

Ino was happily chatting with that pineapple-haired guy who looked like the world could be ending for all he cared. It was odd that the rambunctious blonde would enjoy the company of someone like him.

Ten-Ten was smirking at a frustrated Neji who was determinedly reading his law book and avoiding the brunette's triumphant face. Sakura knew a bit about Neji from Ten-Ten's heated hating rants about him, but nothing really important. She knew that he was sexist and just like all those other Hyuuga's; he thought he was above everyone else and that no one deserved or was worthy of his attention. Knowing Ten-Ten, it was obvious that she would want to open him up and make him less of a prick.

Sasuke and Gaara were over their little contest and were being boring and just sitting there. Sasuke was listening to music at least, but Gaara just sat there with that permanent glare. Sakura wondered for a second if she should go over a start up a conversation.

"So how's it goin? Anything new?" Mai asked before Sakura could stand up. Sakura sat back down.

"Ugh. My parents are divorced now, all my BFF's have like these long lost buddies and are talking to them and poor little me is all alone." Sakura complained. "Damn I sound whiny."

Mai gave a short laugh. "Man, your life sucks right now, huh?" Sakura nodded with a sarcastic excited grin. "Heh, you're actually spot on this time."

.:":.

After everyone's fifth period class, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Ten-Ten, Naruto, Shikamaru, and surprisingly Neji and Sasuke were all standing together arguing over where or what they should eat or where to go for lunch. It was sweet how they all acted like best friends already.

"No, no, no!" Ten-Ten said. "CoCo Ichiban! Best curry house ever! We have to go there! Chicken and shrimp and loads of others!"

"Why can't we just eat some tomatoes and simple rice?" Sasuke said exasperatedly.

"What is up with you and tomatoes!?" Sakura yelled. "And why didn't we just eat some school lunch?!"

"Because they only give us enough to make sure we live!" Naruto whined. "Besides, Ichiraku's ramen is always the place to go! Cheap and delicious! And Hinata hasn't been there!"

Hinata blushed. And the previous statement was a complete lie because the cafeteria was literally a buffet and everyone always filled their numerous plates to the brim. It was too bad yet a good thing that the PE teachers made them burn all that food off before it could make anyone gain any weight. But since they had a new teacher this year, no one knew. Yet.

"How bout Buffalo Wild Wings?" Ino suggested. "It's loud, with entertainment, and not to mention the great food." She was probably talking about a different kind of food, but who knew?

"Did people really make fast food restaurants for nothing?" Neji muttered. Ten-Ten glared. "Well which one do we go to then Mr. Obvious?"

It's a good thing CoCo's ended up being as delicious as Ten-Ten claimed, because they were leaving to the curry house as soon as the threat (which was definitely not empty) to cut off all their fingers was screamed in frustration if they didn't go. Plus, Sasuke got his strange request of simply rice and tomatoes after some strange and flirtatious looks. Naruto cried for a little bit though. He got ramen, but 'it just wasn't Ichiraku's' Naruto had complained. No one cared.

Ino talked to everyone about the sleepover at Ten-Ten's house and, with some persuasion for Neji and Sasuke, everyone agreed that they would join in on the fun. Ino went all out on the agenda and it seemed like she had been planning this overnight her whole life. The guys must've been thinking something along those lines too because they gave some strange looks.

With full bellies, everyone reluctantly waddled back to school and made it just as the bell rang signaling for students to basically get their asses up and head to class. And that's what everyone did.

"Whoo!"Ten-Ten cheered. "We all got PE together!" Neji grimaced and Sasuke groaned.

"C'mon!" The girls (except for timid Hinata) yelled with laughter as they grabbed the guys and dragged them to the gym. Or at least, close to the gym.

"Y'know, you don't have to stop at the gym. The locker room sounds good. Preferably yours." Naruto commented slyly with wiggling eyebrows. Sakura smacked him and Ino rolled her eyes and generously gave him the "number one" sign. Ten-Ten still grinned though. "We're not going to the locker room. And not the gym either." The brunette replied mysteriously.

The girls once again dragged the helplessly confused guys. The gym entrance was right in view and as the guys opened their mouths to point it out, they turned to a small hall to the right to face a dead end. Hinata ran ahead of all of them and stomped her feet on the ground.

"Ummm." Naruto eyed the stomping girl wearily. "Are you feeling okay Hinata?" Hinata nodded while her face turned a slight pink. She stomped on the ground again but this time the floor made a rattling sound as if some floorboards were loose...

Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru's eyes widened as a major 'ooooooohhh' went through their heads. Hinata reached down and pulled a few floorboards aside after Ino and Sakura made sure the coast was clear. Then, Hinata jumped right into the gaping hole in the ground before anyone could ask what was there.

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted. Neji took a step forward but he didn't really look worried in the least, and Shikamaru simply raised an eyebrow, while Sasuke's shot straight up. While the guys were currently distracted by the hole in the ground, the remaining three girls looked at each other before suddenly grinning, and, as fast as Hinata disappeared down the hole in the floor, they took the guys by their wrists and shoved them down the unknown. They waited for a few minutes and shouted "I'm coming down" before jumping in after them.

It was only a four foot drop from the top, but Naruto was sprawled on the floor when the girls jumped in, so Sakura, Ino, and Ten-Ten landed right on him. "I'm dying!" He groaned. "Oh God, I swear I'm slowly dying.." Ino flicked him on the forehead. "Oh quit complaining!"

"OW!" Naruto shouted. Sasuke slightly kicked him in the side. "Quit being so loud!" The Uchiha hissed.

Naruto had tears in his eyes. "Why me?" He whimpered. He jumped up from his place on the floor and the pitifully punched the Uchiha in the shoulder. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

The place they were in was surprisingly not really that dark. It was like a large underground gymnasium that could probably fit over a hundred-and-fifty people and at the end it had stairs on the top right corner and another on the top left.

"Where do those lead to?" Shikamaru asked. "The left," Ten-Ten pointed to the left stairs. "Leads to the girls locker room."

"And the right," Sakura cut in. "Well you can guess that it's the guys locker room." Ino pointed at Naruto with a glare and said sharply, "And I better not catch you guys using this to peep on girls or you'll be damn sorry you ever came to this school. Naruto." The whiskered blonde gulped.

"Anyways," Ten-Ten continued. "This is just a cool place where we like to chill."

"And text each other to meet here to escape D-hall." Sakura cut in.

"That little finishing each other's thoughts is kinda creepy." Naruto pointed out. The girls giggled.

"The bells about to ring." Hinata cut in shyly. "We s-should head o-out." Naruto made that buzzer sound with his mouth again. "NOOOOOOOO!" He shouted. "NO STUTTERING!"

Sakura hit Naruto on the head again. "Shut up!" She hissed. "People can probably hear your voice idiot!"

Naruto rubbed his head and scrambled away from the pinkette. "You don't have to be so mean Sakuraaaaa." He whined pitifully. She glared at him and raised her fist.

"ANYWAY!" Ten-Ten cut in loudly. "We should probably meet here after school for the sleepover." She suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement. "And no one get D-hall! If you do then you'll just have to skip it whether you like it or not!" Ino said firmly. She was one-hundred percent serious about this overnight. There was no way in hell a simple D-hall would ruin it. Not on her watch. Shikamaru suddenly let out a snicker.

"What?" Ino asked curiously.

"Haha.. I just noticed something.." he chuckled. "The guys are on the right because they're always right, and the girls are left."

"SHIKAMARU YOU JACKASS!" she screamed furiously.

"Ino!" Everyone whisper shouted. Ten-Ten covered Ino's mouth from behind and pointed upwards. Everyone was dead silent. Their eyes followed to where Ten-Ten's arm was pointing and they stared the ceiling. They heard soft footsteps and a muffled voice.

"Go." Ten-Ten whispered. "Go, go go!"

The guys nodded their heads and ran off toward the right tunnel as silently as possible and the girls stealthily ran towards their side.

Hinata was first and opened up a door at the top and walked right in. Sakura, Ino, The Ten-Ten followed suit, the last closing the door and entered a simple little room that had some basketballs, jump ropes, and other sports equipment that was right inside the locker room, so when they opened the door they'd just step right out and get to their lockers to change. Hinata opened the door, and accidentally hit a chick in the way, and the four stepped out. Since most of the girls were in KHS last year, they were pretty used to the four just randomly stepping out of supply closets, but Ino tended to have a little bit of haters so a LOT of lying is used every once in a while. Today was one of their lucky days because nobody paid them any attention.

The girls all got dressed in their gym clothes in record time that only a girl could reach (or maybe a Neji) and Ten-Ten dragged them all off to the gym in excitement that confused the girls. "Come on, come on!" Ten-Ten said. "We have the guys in gym! And besides, we get to see our new gym teacher!"

(-)-(-)-(-)

"What the fuck is that!?" Is exactly what Ten-Ten whispered when she saw their new gym teacher. He was the strangest person they had ever seen, and he looked like he would've come out of the time dinosaurs were alive with his ridiculous outfit and non-contraction using speech. He wore a green spandex suit with the Konoha head band around his waist, and he had orange leg-warmers. To top it off he had the most ridiculous bowl-cut hair and the bushiest eyebrows that it probably wasn't even legal. And his name was...

"Good morning my ever so youthful students! I am Gai-sensei! Your gym teacher for the while year!" The strange man said with enthusiasm. Ten-Ten gulped. 'The whole year...' she thought. Ino looked ready to cry and whimpered pitifully. Sakura and Hinata stared open-mouthed.

"My youthful class!" Gai-sensei started with passion. "Today, the beginning of a successful and glorious year, is going to be started with a challenging and friendly game of volleyball!" He shouted.

"Hey, that's not too bad." Sakura whispered. The girls shrugged. Gai-sensei divided them all up into groups and sent them to a court surprisingly fast, but, Ten-Ten noticed with dismay, the boys played against boys and the girl went against girls. She was kind of hoping to totally destroy Neji in a "friendly" game of volleyball. She frowned.

"Hey guys," she said to Sakura, Ino, and Ten-Ten. "Is it just me or should we all ask to play against the guys?" Ino bit her lip before breaking into a wide grin. "Hell yea!" she exclaimed. "We gotta show 'em whose boss before the days over, am I right?" Sakura rolled her eyes with a giggle. "Yea, yea, whatever pig." The pinkette teased. She got serious. "But first, who's gonna ask the teacher to play them?"

"I-I guess I can." Hinata stepped up. Ino put a fist into her palm in thought. "Yea you're probably the best for this job, hmmm. Ok we got this!" She concluded.

Hinata clasped her hands behind her back and walked towards Gai-sensei uncertainly. He was praising this kid who looked almost exactly like Gai-sensei (green spandex, bushy brows, and bowl cut hair included) about his incredible youthfulness when Hinata shyly cleared her throat. "E-excuse me, sensei?" She said softly. He turned around to her. "Hello, young blossom!" He said. "Can I assist you?" Hinata sweat dropped at his "I'm such a cool guy" pretend deep voice. She hoped it was pretend….

"I-I was wondering if me and my f-friends could do a match against the boys over there," Hinata pointed toward a bickering Naruto and Sasuke, then to a snoozing Shikamaru and statue-like Neji. Gai-sensei quirked his eyebrows.

'C'mon Hinata this won't cut it!' She thought. 'Just say the word.'

She cleared her throat softly. "Me and my friends are...youthfully determined to beat them, and they will definitely make a ch-challenge." She said with as much confidence as she could muster. It worked perfectly and Gai-sensei's eyes sparkled with appreciation and he toothily grinned at the Hyuuga. "Well, if that is the case," He said. "Then absolutely!" Hinata said her thanks quickly (barely avoiding a tearful hug from her gym teacher) and sprinted off to the girls who were all waiting with cheeky grins (they were a competitive bunch.) She made sure Ten-Ten, Ino, and Sakura knew about her take for the team, and they all burst into laughter. Hinata was not amused even she had a little pride. It was gone now of course Ino and Ten-Ten all sprinted to the guys and didn't say a word as they dragged a still and ever-constantly arguing Naruto and Sasuke, and a confused Neji and Shikamaru to a court where Sakura was dribbling the volleyball and Hinata was slightly adjusting the net. Ino and Ten-Ten dropped the boys on the floor and helped them up with excited smiles.

"Alrighty, ladies," Ino said. "Let's get started." The boys finally realized what they meant, and scrambled to the opposite side of the court and got in position. "Woohoo!" Naruto shouted. "Let's kick butt!"

"As if." Sakura mumbled and she tossed the ball in the air and served it perfectly over the net. Naruto sprinted to hit it back and bumped it neatly towards Ino. "Ow!" Naruto hissed. "That kind of hurt." Sasuke hit back the ball to Ino when Ten-Ten spiked it neatly over the net, and Neji would've almost missed it, had he not been fast enough. "Get used to it." Sasuke replied, and Naruto stuck his tongue out at him before hitting the ball when Sasuke tried to get it.

"You do know that were on the same team, right dobe?" Sasuke grumbled, returning another hit. Naruto rolled his eyes. "Not my fault I'm better than you." The Uchiha's eyebrow twitched. Naruto stole another hit that Sasuke could've gotten easily and instead hit it straight into the net. The girls cheered. "What was that for?!" Sasuke yelled at Naruto who was grinning sheepishly. "You didn't look like you were going to get it." Naruto defended pathetically. Sasuke glared. "Well you were wrong."

"Well I'm sorry, Mr. I'm-so-much-better!"

"Well I am."

"Are not!"

"Says the person who screwed up our point, dobe."

"That was all you, teme!"

"You hit it."

And that was pretty much how the whole game went by; Naruto and Sasuke arguing like two-year olds and Neji being the only one trying to return the hit hits the girls bumped him, while Shikamaru just sat out, seeing they weren't going to win and just trying for nothing would be a drag. Oh it was one heck of a "youthful" match alright.

°•°•°•°•°•°•°

"Schools out! Schools out! schools out!" Sakura, Ino, and even Hinata chanted as they sprinted down the halls as soon as the end-of-day bell rang, but unlike all the other teens heading to the gates to freedom, the three girls had no intention of leaving the school. Yet. As soon as the bell rang they all sprinted as fast as they could to the secret underground gym to meet up with Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, and Sasuke with barely contained excitement. They all knew that they were going to have so much fun, and that what high school was meant to be full of; meeting new people who would end up being your worst enemies or best friends that would always be a part of the best memories. Having nights where you get piss-drunk for the first time and parties that would last till early morning. Highschool was the best years of their lives; there was no way any of the girls could imagine anything that could ruin their day. Hinata herself was squealing along with the others as they opened up the floorborad to the underground room.

"It's about time." Shikamaru smirked. Sakura beamed at Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, and even Sasuke's face with excitement. Ino smiled, Ten-Ten grinned, and Hinata was beside herself with joy. It was time to get rebellious.

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**A/N Okiedokie. This is it folks the chapter where things are only gonna get interesting from here on out! yay! I hate the first few chappies cause you have to find a perfect way to start the story, introduce the characters, time, setting and shtuff and im the person who likes to make it as I go not really pre write all and stuff :/ its not good thing but its not a thing I can help either hehe. well I hope you enjoyed. reviews make my day and can make my story better with constructive criticism.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N NEXT CHAPTER! Yay I'm so happeh this chapter was out earlier than I wanted! Well I wanted to tomorrow, but that's still a huge difference to me! I seriously have issues when it comes to posting my chapters on time actually. -_- if you want to hear me babble on my thought, today I'm putting it at the end of this chapter cause at the moment I don't really feel like chatting about absolutely nothing but random nothingness so on with the story! Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the stores mentioned in the chapter like brands or any songs. Naruto is owned by an old Japanese dude not me.**

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Before having what Ino said was going to be the _'overnight of their lives',_ (honestly it was still the beginning of the school year) everyone agreed that a healthy dose of mall shopping was much needed _especially_ since Sasuke hasn't been yet (Ino just about ripped his head off when he sad that, and she would've if he just want so damn sexy) and Shikamaru and Naruto were the same since all three came from Suna. They could hit the arcade, get some ice cream, try on some cute clothes that they would buy or wear just because they normally wouldn't be caught dead wearing, and the girls made it a rule since middle school that they always needed to test how much balls any guy had before they could hang out with them as much as they planned to, much less have a sleepover that would probably scar them for their whole lives, and honestly; who would want a total douche to be their friend? A few dares here and there were gonna be given and if a guy dropped out...well, the girls had yet to figure out an embarrassing enough punishment, but it was going to be good and definitely enough for some laughs.

But there was one problem about going to the mall; none of the girls had a car and the guys were all planning to ride the bus before Ino panned the whole mall/sleepover thing. So they needed a ride, but since they all rode the bus and missed it there was only one option. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Ten-Ten, Neji Shikamaru, Sasuke, and Naruto all somehow managed to fit in one small car and it just so happened to be Sasuke's car; a jet-black Lamborghini with blue flames licking the bottom of the car, the spoiled brat! Butterfly wing doors too) but it only had five seats. Sasuke didn't live that far from the school, so he ran to his house for his car and drove back to the school to (unwillingly) pick everyone else up, but not before attempting to leave an ever-so obnoxious Naruto behind. And trying to run over the blonde's foot..

Sakura ended up sitting in-between the two seats in the front, using the consul as a seat (which Sasuke was convinced she crushed) and Ten-Ten and Ino shared passenger seat. Neji, Shikamaru and Naruto each got their own seat in the back while Hinata, being the smallest out of all eight, sat in the foot space in front of Naruto. Luckily, there weren't any police around, not just because they would get a ticket, but also because Sasuke would've been screwed big time since his brother worked for the police and would've had Sasuke's head on a wall for not wearing any seat belts and more passengers than there were seats. At least that's what he told everyone, but he looked dead serious.

Eventually they got to the mall, but it was difficult for everyone to get out of the car with Naruto screaming he wanted to be first and Hinata was trying to keep from being stomped on by Naruto, and Ino was trying to get out of the car before Ten-Ten (who was trying to get out first and shove Ino aside) and Sakura was trying to crawl over Sasuke to get out of his door, and Shikamaru just didn't want to get out at all. Neji just sat there and waited for everyone to get out first. It was nearly half an hour before everyone finally got out of the car, and Naruto ended up being first. Ino disagreed and stubbornly insisted she was the first one out, point _blank__._

"Woohoo!" Ino and Naruto practically screamed. Ino and Naruto glared at each other. "Stupid blonde." They both said at the same time. Sakura and Ten-Ten laughed at how right _both _of the blondes were getting two glares in return.

Konoha Mall was a beauty for anyone who loved to shop (which was a whole frickin _lot_ of people). It had three floors and _dozens_ of stores with all the most popular brands. On the first floor it was all the entertainment and food. It had an ice cream shop, pizza hut, McDonald's, movie theater, arcade, popeyes, a small salad buffet, Dunkin Donuts,Cinny's Hangout, little stands that people set up to advertise their own stuff like dippin dots, and loads of others.

The second floor was filled with all the clothes stores; American Eagle, Hot Topic, Route 21, Fast Lane, Hollister, Aeropostale, Victoria secret, then there's these designer stores that sell one-of-a-kind clothing that's really expensive and meant for people who wiped their ass with twenty-dollar bills. Ino loved to go inside and look at all the elegant party dresses even though she knew she couldn't buy anything which broke her (barely existing) heart.

Then there was the third floor which was all the extras; bath and body works, this tattoo shop called Eternity, Claire's, a music shop that Hinata loved to go to so she could jam out on the piano they had there, a purse and accessories store called Vick's, and more. It was pure heaven and the girls never got tired of it. Like, never.

They walked in and Ino gave everyone the agenda. Again. "Ok so we should probably just shop on the third and second floors first to get them done with instead of having to go to the other side of the mall and back. When were done with up there, we should come back to eat then we can blow off what money we have left at the arcade. Then we'll head on over to Ten's house and do whatever...and whoever..." She said with a mischievous smile and wiggling eyebrows. Hinata blushed a tomato red.

Naruto rolled his eyes and smacked his head with a groan. "Is she always this controlling?" He whispered to Ten-Ten. She shrugged in response. "She's in her own world, but she's happy. I can deal."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Typical." Ino laughed suddenly really loud but that's how excited she was and it just seemed to radiate from her; she was just so happy. It was probably because things were going her way and her way only, but no one had the mean in them to point that out. First day of school was a sign of a new beginning. New year, new friends, and new teachers, including the principal this year surprisingly. This was the excitement she welcomed with open arms.

They walked into the mall and Sasuke took a quick glance around, since it was his first time, and he tried not to show how impressed he was because he knew Sakura would bug him about it. It was a big building and it looked nice with cool designs and the fountain that people threw their change in to make a wish.

_'Tch.'_ He thought. _'Annoying.'_ He was, personally, glad it was a Monday; the mall wasn't very crowded, but there were always more teens than anyone else; it wasn't only Sakura, Ino, Ten-Ten and Hinata who considered this place their favorite. Sasuke knew he was going to be at this mall much more this year so he just started forcing himself to like it.

Ino rambled on about all her favorite restaurants and which ones she hated and which ones served the food fastest or was cheaper. She talked about how her diet went away with the wind when it came to Pizza Hut's chocolate dunkers, and how Popeye's created her obsession with shrimp. Then, Ino made one BIG mistake. As they got closer to the escalators, Ino pointed out once certain shop, but before she could say another word besides the name of the restaurant. Naruto suddenly interrupted with a scream and everyone in the mall whipped their heads around to stare at him.

"**ITS ICHIRAKU'S!"** He shouted with his finger pointing at the Ramen shop. He just about sprinted to the shop, but before he could go far, Sakura grabbed him by his shirt collar and dragged him back to the group.

"Naruto, you _idiot_!" She screeched with fire in her eyes. "The _whole mall_ is staring!" The blonde gulped at that look Sakura was giving him, but eventually the stares went away and so did her glare. Naruto's face was _almost_ heartbreaking; his eyes were glassy and staring longingly at the ramen shop as he stood with his shoulders hunched and hands jammed in his pockets. He felt Sakura's gaze and he slowly looked at her with a sniffle for effect. She narrowed her eyes and in retaliation as he jut out his bottom lip in a pout. Sakura just couldn't glare at that and she looked away with a soft mutter. "Idiot."

"Dammit, I was close!"

"Hey," Ino piped up once they were on the second floor and away from Naurto's heaven shop. "How much money did you guys bring? I brought credit." She said holding up her credit card. To have credit card you had to be at least 18, but since it was under her dad's account it was all good.

Naruto fished in his pockets for his wallet, which was a frog shaped pouch, and brought out a roll of cash and began to count. He scratched his head. "Uhhh... I have about twenty to thirty." He said. Sasuke gave low whistle.

"What is that?" He said. "A new record?" Naruto glared. Sasuke wasn't saying that because Naruto was poor, but actually because Naruto always lost whatever money he earned. The blonde had told Sasuke himself which was a _horrible mistake._ "How much do_ you_ have, teme?" He challenged only half-heartedly. He already knew it was definitely more money than he would ever have altogether in his whole life. "Debit card." The Uchiha said smugly. Naruto suddenly brightened up. "Wait, technically-" "largest word I've ever heard you use-" "shut up! Anyways, I _technically_ have more _cash_ on me than you! Believe it!" Sasuke thought about it for a moment. "Hn." Was all he said. Even Sasuke knew when someone was right. Albeit even if that person was right for like, the _first time ever._

"I have fifty." Neji said and Hinata said the same. When everyone looked at Sakura for her answer, she sighed and mumbled, "I have twenty. Even less than Naruto..." she sweat-dropped. Ino gave her a pat on the shoulder in sympathy and Ten-Ten rolled her eyes at how they made such a big deal out of it.

Shikamaru was the last, and he pulled out his money from his brown leather wallet and simply said he had fifty. As he was about to put his wallet back in his pocket, Ino's eyes grew wide as saucers as something caught her eyes and a warm smile adorned her face. She waked over to Shikamaru and snatched his wallet from his hands, and just as the pineapple-head was about to protest, probably thinking she was going to take his money, she shot him a grin. "No way..." she said. "No way, _no way_!" She was squealing as she took something out of Shikamaru's wallet and shoved it in his face before looking at it again. "You still have this?!" She asked softly, cradling the small photo like a newborn. It was a picture with Ino, Shikamaru and another boy, all of them only about seven or so. Ino was in a princess costume, Shikamaru wore jeans and a brown shirt that had paper taped on it that said 'costume' and the other little kid was dressed up in a giant chip costume. Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah. I still have it."

"Was it Halloween or something?" Sakura asked. Ino nodded. "Yeah, and the bastard right here wouldn't put a real costume on for anything, and has the only copy if this photo. It was the only picture we took that night because some stupid guy dressed as a clown threw water balloons at us so my camera got ruined. Shikamaru's dad had the camera that we took this picture with."

Hinata giggled. "S-so you and Shikamaru h-hung out quite a bit when you l-lived in Suna, hmm?" Ino didn't know what Hinata was hinting at so she just smiled and nodded. "Yup, we sure did!"

Sakura and Ten-Ten made the universal heart sign with their hands and Ino still didn't get it. Naruto snickered and nudged Hinata and whispered in a sing-song voice, "Ooh someone's in looooove." And even though it wasn't Hinata who was the one in love _of course_, she still blushed; he was so close, and leaning right into her...their proximity was unignorable..

"Moving on..." Ino said giving everyone an odd look; Sakura and Ten-Ten were whistling with false innocence, and Naruto was leaning to whisper something in Hinata's ear and she was blushing like crazy. Must have been something perverted... Pineapple-head averted his eyes when Ino looked over at him questioningly and she just shrugged her shoulders.

"So where should we go first?" She asked.

"How about Fast Lane?" Hinata offered. "There's going to be s-some sort of party since i-its the beginning of the year, r-right?" Sakura nodded in agreement. "True dat." She said. "Fast Lane it is!"

They walked to the shop slowly, **(A/N hahaha they went to the fast lane slowly? Get it?)** letting Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Naruto get their first scan second part of the mall and though Shikamaru looked like he couldn't possible care any less, Ino knew better. Just the single, barely raised eyebrow told her that even he was slightly impressed. Ino noted this with a smug grin as she gave herself a high-five in her head. 'Booyah!'

Fast Lane was a large store with wood floors and cream-colored walls, but despite how large the store was and the light color of the walls, it was a dimly lit store that reminded Sakura of 'Hot Topic'. It had 'Photograph' by Nickelback playing in the background and they had multicolored lights that gave the cream walls multiple colors. It had mens wear on the left and women's on the left. They had great style and jewelery and they also were the only store the sold really pretty and stylish fishnet tights for just about anywhere; arms legs upper body etc. And fishnets literally just came into style the other day.

Everyone explored off on their own and looked at cute clothes and accessories, and Ino had to get in style for the fishnets so she went scouting for those. Sakura went scouting for good party clothes. Maybe she could get a guy sometime soon. Beating Ino at getting a guy; Sakura would take that any day. She saw a cute crimson tube top with a single black stripe just below where the breasts would be. Sakura yanked it off the hanger and looked for Ten-Ten. It was so her style.

Sakura was right. When the pinkette finally found the brunette, the latter's eyes sparkled and she yanked the shirt out of Sakura's grasp with a hiss of, "Mine!" and Sakura backed away slowly from the wild beast she called her friend. Ten-Ten bought the shirt with some fingerless leather biker gloves, and she left to go put it on to see if it fit and Sakura went off to check up on the guys. She ran into Sasuke first, and she was surprised to see that he already had a shirt picked out.

"Wow" she said. Sasuke jumped, not seeing her yet, and he suddenly blushed in embarrassment. "Hey a guy can shop too." He mumbled. "It's not my fault you take a million years _just_ to pick out a shirt." Sakura put her hands on her hips. "Well at least we have style!" She disapprovingly pointed to the shirt Sasuke held.

"I actually liked it..."

Sakura blinked. She didn't know how to reply to that. "Is it that bad?" Sasuke mumbled. Sakura gasped dramatically. Seriously?! Sasuke was actually asking for clothes advice? It took everything just so she could keep from laughing. Sasuke saw her face and glared with a pout. "I'm only asking because I have a bad habit of picking...bland clothes... Tht's what my Nii-san says.."

That was the last straw and Sakura burst into a fit of giggles. she laughed hard and Sasuke just glared as she doubled over with laughter. He already had a whole freaking fanclub on the first day of school and he had a cothes problem? That was something that usually only _girls _dealt with. Dear god she did not see that coming.

Sasuke grit his teeth. "I'm just asking!" He almost seemed to whine. "Are you going to help or not?" Sakura took several deep breaths dramatically in an attempt to calm down. "Yeah, yeah I'll help." she giggled some more. "That was just _unexpected_, that all." If there was anyone she would think would have trouble dressing, she would think Shikamaru probably because he wouldn't really care what he was wearing, as long as it were clothes. She took another deep breath and finally stopped laughing. "Well what's you style?" She received a blank look. She gave a sigh. "Ok," she said. "Pick out a shirt you like." Sasuke stuck out the one he had on his arm. Sakura shook her head. "Really?" She said exasperatedly. "Get in style, Sasuke! Flat colors are gone!" She snatched the simple v-neck black shirt out of Sasuke's hands and shoved it on a random shelf. She grabbed a navy blue 'cool story babe' shirt and held it up for him to inspect. He glared. "Fine." Sakua shoved it in his hands and went to look for matching pants. Sasuke followed with a mumble of "Damn, mother." She gave him black skinny jeans with a silver chain attached to one pocket going into the back pocket on the same side. Sexy. Saauke raised a lone eyebrow at her choice. "Something tells me you picked this one cause you want to see how hot ill look in it." He said slyly. Sakura punched him in the shoulder but she didn't deny it. If she did, she'd be lying.

The Uchiha left to find the changing rooms to make sure the clothes fit, and Sakura, her job being done, walked off to search for her own clothes. It was a shame she didn't find anything, but everything was pretty expensive to her with her twenty-dollar budget.

About fifteen minutes later, everyone agreed they were done with Fast Lane for the day, and they left to go look for another store. Ino had two bags already; one was some hoop earrings with some fishnets, and the other had some skinny jeans and a shirt that had one sleeve that slipped of the shoulder and it had tons of different shades of blue all over, lightest to darkest starting from the bottom. Hinata had only one bag that had a fishnet shirt and a purple shirt that had 'private property' written on the back that Ino insisted she buy. Sasuke ended up buying the things Sakura picked out for him, along with some black converse Ino popped into his bag since she decided his worn grey nikes were 'lame.' Naruto got an orange t-shirt that said we eat ramen in white letters. Shikamaru, Neji, and Ten-Ten didn't get anything.

Sakura picked the next store which was Hot Topic. Most people considered it this all goth store, but really it had some cute stuff. Sure sometimes the piercings and mass amounts of black and skulls could be overkill but other than that it was pretty chill. Shikamaru was looking at earrings and that surprised everyone except Ino of course and he was looking for a simple silver hoop that the person at the cash register helped him find.

Naruto looked pretty out of place; he had put on his orange ramen shirt and he had light-colored blue jeans and also adding his spiky yellow hair. Against all the black in the store he could be considered glow in the dark. He didn't really like the store so much, so he waited outside of it and Neji followed too.

Hinata walked up to Ino shyly. "I-Ino... I don't know w-what to get here." She said. Ino frowned. "I don't think you really should, though. This doesn't really seem like your type of store." Hinata nodded. Ino looked at some earrings then let out a giggle. "I think Shikamaru at least has good taste in earrings. I think I might buy the same ones as him." A person next to Ino scoffed. "I don't think that was a compliment exactly, but I'll take it." Shikamaru said. Ino rolled her eyes. "Baka."

**|…|-{}-{}-{}-{}|…|**

"Whew! Man, I'm starving!" Naruto said. He rubbed his tummy. "I think I'm feeling for Ichirakus!"

"Based on the little episode earlier, I can tell you _always_ feel for ramen. You going to die eating it I swear. It has such high leels of sodium! All that salt is _so _bad for your body! Just eat it every now and then with some water to wash it down. Actually water makes your skin _so _healthy and hydrated.." Ino said, getting into her dieting speech.

"So what other place should we go to?" Ten-Ten interrupted so Ino could get her mind off of preaching her dieting beliefs to Naruto.

"How about pizza hut?" Sakura said. "It has a mini arcade and we can get some chocolate dunkers." Ino licked her lips with a happy little smile when she thought of the melted Hershey's chocolate that came with the dunkers. So much for her diet.

"Well, all in favor of Pizza Hut...say aye!"

Sasuke and Neji blinked. They both had that look that said 'oh _hell_ naw' ,but surprisingly, with a sigh Sasuke said, "Aye."

"Aye!" Ten-Ten said.

"Aye.." Naruto rejectedly said.

"Aye." Hinata.

"Aye." And the last and laziest Shikamaru.

"Sorry Neji, but whether you want to go or not, you're out voted." Ten-Ten smirked and Neji just stared. Well he looked _fine_ with that.

Pizza Hut was at the front of the mall, so everyone walked towards the escalators to get to the first floor. It was funny because Ino just _refused_ to go on the escalators when they were going down for some reason, some childhood fear, so she dragged a protesting Shikamaru down the stairs, saying she didn't want to go alone. By the time they were on the first floor, Shikamaru was huffing out ragged breaths. "What...a drag.." he huffed. He looked like he just wanted to sit on the dirty mall floor.

"The stairs don't look that bad." Ten-Ten mumbled. Ino gave her a look that said 'there not.' Shikamaru dragged his feet to Pizza Hut, lagging behind everyone else with his breathing still ragged. "Never again." He said shaking his head. "Never again." Almost as dramatic as Naruto when it came to stairs. Everyone put that on a mental note pad.

They waked into Pizza Hut, finding a table easily since there wasn't many people. The table was able to fit all eight people and the cashier looked surprised and happy at the sudden arrival of eight customers. "So what should we get?" Ino said. "Well, were getting two pizzas right?" Ten-Ten asked. "Maybe we could get one pepperoni and the other sausage."

"I'm ok with that." Sasuke said nonchalantly.

"But I'm a fan of the cheese pizzas." Shikamaru added. "so maybe half sausage half cheese?" Sakura nodded in agreement. "Sounds good." She said. "And maybe forty chocolate dunkers so we can all get five?"

"Hell yeah!" Ino cheered. "Ino!" Sakura hissed. "Were in a restaurant!" The blonde looked like she really couldn't care less.

"Ok so what drinks?"

"Water." You can guess who said that.

"Sprite." Shikamaru said.

"Coke." Ten-Ten.

"Root Beer!" Sakura said excitedly; it was her favorite. Her god of all non-alcoholic beverages.

"Sprite." Neji said.

"I-Ill have Orangette." Hinata said. That was her favorite.

"Same here!" Naruto popped in. Ino was thankful it wasn't something like ramen-juice..

"Ok well I dunno how I'm going to remember all that, but oh well." Ino said. She walked off to go order and Sakura watched as the cashiers face turned happy to overwhelmed at the mass mount of food. It was a good thing they were all splitting the bill or Ino would be in a shit load of trouble from her dad. God knows she'd have to work at her mothers flower shop to pay it all off.

Ino walked back with her face flushed. Everyone got serious. "How much is it?" Sakura asked fearfully. Ino looked away. "I-Its.." Ten-Ten leaned forward eagerly. "Sixty dollars and seventy cents..." Sakura blinked. "Oh." She said. "that's not that bad, I mean when divided by eight it's not much." Ino blinked as if just remembering they were splitting the price. Ten-Ten facepalmed. "That's about eight dollars for each of us." Shikamaru said. "Not bad." Sasuke said.

Ino took Sasuke's credit card and eight dollars from everyone, and went back up to the cashier. Ino paid and the cashier told the blonde that she would serve the food herself to their table. Ino nodded in thanks and rushed back to the table. "Ugh," She said. "We have to wait for like, twenty minutes." Naruto groaned as his stomach let out another growl.

"So where we going after the mall again?" Sasuke asked.

"My house." Ten-Ten said. "Y'all are heading to the beasts cave after this little paradise." She gave an evil look to Neji. "And its my house Hyuuga. My rules." He glared at her; she knew that Nehi was a somewhat respectful man and followed common house rules, so if Ten-Ten demanded him to do something in _her_ _house_, Neji felt obliged to do it.

"So we all agree that were at east not going to get too drunk since we got school tomorrow?" Sakura sad with a giggle. Everyone nodded, but Sasuke said, "No promises," with the usual trademark smirk. Sakura had to wonder if he ever smiled like he meant it. She doubted it. "You guys aren't afraid to play truth or dare, are you?" Ino asked slyly. "I mean, if you were then I would totally understand." Naruto slapped his hand on the table, drawing everyone's attention. "No way!" He yelled. "I never back down on a dare! Believe it!"

"Then I dare you too moon the cashier."

"W-what?!" Stuttered a completely taken aback Naruto.

"Did I stutter?" Sasuke teased. "I said that I, Uchiha Sasuke , dare you, Uzumaki Naruto , to moon the cashier. Sakura snickered and Ino actually ready to see 'dat ass.' Ten-Ten quickly whipped out her trusty phone and started recording. "Ok,"she said. "Naruto here was dared to moon, yes I said moon, a cashier at pizza hut in the mall. Ok now take a look at Hinata's face right now." Hinata let out an 'eep' as Ten-Ten's phone swiveled around to record Hinata. "We all know Hina here really has a devilish mind despite her innocent façade. We all know she just wants to rap-" "Ten-Ten!" Hinata squeaked. The brunette giggled and she faces the camera towards a beet red Naruto who was still staring dumbly at a smirking Uchiha.

"Are you scared?" Sasuke taunted. "Scaredy cat. You said you never back down, tch." He scoffed. Naruto suddenly sighed and everyone was filled with disappointment when they realized Naruto wasn't going to do it...then...

Naruto turned around...and swiped down the back of his pants followed by his underwear.. Sasuke was slightly shocked.

But there was one problem...the cashier wasn't even looking so Naruto, still bending over, with his bare ass sticking out, had no other choice but to catch her attention. "Oi! Cashier! I have a surprise!" The cashier looked up and she saw her 'surprise' as clear as day and squealed loudly before covering her eyes and falling over. Naruto quickly pulled his pants back on and sat back at the table, but not before punching a snickering Sasuke on the way. "H-her face!" Sakura managed to breathe out. "Her face!" "I got it on camera!" Ten-Ten yelled and everyone huddled around her to watch it.

"So how you like it?" Asked a still blushing Naruto with wiggling eyebrows. Ino looked traumatized. "I-Its so...white!"

* * *

**A/N UUUUUGHGHGHGHGHGGH!I APOLOGIZE GREATLY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE CALLED THE SHORTNESS OF MY CHAPTER! Absolutely NOTHING really went on here and I gotta say...TEARS OF DEFEAT! I still ask for reviews cause they make me and my story better with constructive criticism. Crawls in a lonely corner of shame for all eternity.**

**WAIT!1 Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that Kurenai's old student `was apart of the Kurama clan and the Kyuubi's name is also Kurama...weird right?! Maybe it was a mistake, he's running out of name ideas or it may lead to something BIG! ah whatever. Anyone else scream the roof down when they saw Sasuke smile at Sakura's power? Eh well that's enough of my random ramblings, see ya next update! **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Ok to make up for last chapters suckiness and shortness, I'll make this chapter full with juicy drama and It will be LOOOOONG! so I guess this is my excuse for the long wait hahaha; the longness of the chapter. Getting to know everyone is STILL not over yet folks and today we learn about a little secret about Hinata kukuku :3 nah it's not that important its just a little moment from her past and talks about her depressing life. well enjoy this chapter and please leave reviews which make me HAPPEH! Hope you enjoy! On with the story!**

**DISCLAIMER IN THE MOST DRAMATIC FORM (nah it's not really dramatic): I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO I DONT OWN NARUTO!**

**IMPORTANT NOTE! At the bottom of this chapter I have an important note that I would recommend you all read puhhhh-leeeaaazzzee.**

* * *

Well, in the end, Pizza Hut was fun' but that fun came at a price; the cashier still gave them the food they bought, (they _did _pay for it) but she kicked all the laughing teens out after Naruto's little stunt. Everyone agreed It was totally worth the laughs they got out of it though. Sakura had made the mistake of trying to drink some of her soda to calm her laughter and she ended up spewing it everywhere so she wouldn't choke and poor Sasuke and Neji were within range.

Their plan on going to the arcade was out of the question; everyone was almost completely out of cash except for Ino and Sasuke with their credit cards that's money value seemed to never end, so they had no money to play a lot of games and stuff. But again, spending the money they did on the clothes and food was worth it.

Sasuke cried a little inside today too and everyone could see that he was reluctant to let her go; he had to let Ten-Ten drive his car. His jet-black Lamborghini with blue flames and butterfly wings and the whole expensive package. It was the most dangerous thing; letting her drive, but he didn't know where her house was and Ten-Ten sucked at giving directions. Last time Ten-Ten tried giving Ino's mom directions to the mall, they ended up at an origami parade that came to Konoha annually. It was a good thing the parade was fun or Ino's mom would've been pissed. Ten-Ten, Sakura and Hinata knew just how Ino's mom made the word pissed have a whole different meaning; it was scary. Like mother like daughter.

Sasuke was the one who sat on the consul instead of Sakura (who sat next to Ino) this time and he kept a hand protectively over the emergency brakes as if he really thought that Ten-Ten would crash his car. Sasuke would make a good dad now wouldn't he; protective and mean. You'd think someone as rich as him wouldn't give a damn about losing a single car, but Uchiha Sasuke never ceased to amaze.

Hinata herself was a little fearful of Ten-Ten's driving too; she didn't realize it, but she was clinging tightly to Naruto's left foot while Naruto gave her an odd look, but he didn't point it out to her, already catching on to the fact that she was incredibly shy and would probably faint at being caught gripping Naruto's leg awkwardly. Neji was a little pale and -gasp- Shikamaru was fast asleep (well everyone thought he was, but Ino knew he was still trying; and failing.) No surprise there.

It took about twenty minutes to get to the brunettes house, and Ino cheered when she realized Ten-Ten only got lost once and the brunette gave herself a literal pat on the back after Sasuke sighed in relief realizing his car wasnt harmed at all. Shikamaru sweat-dropped at this; it was just sad that someone still got lost on their way to their own house after living in it for years.

Her house was really nice since her aunt was such a successful woman and well paid. It was big and had plenty of rooms, odd for a house with normally only two people, along with a built-in 3-10 foot deep pool in the backyard which also had a homemade gazebo that had a small bar in it that Ten-Ten's mom usually invited people over to hang out and drink in. Unknown to the older woman, Ten-Ten used it for the same. Her mom was currently out on a business trip for two weeks so the house was all hers with no rules (at least no rules she were forced to follow.)

Everyone got out of the car faster than they did at the mall, which was a huge improvement, and Ten-Ten led the way into the house. She slipped off her sandals by the door and walked down a long hall that had book shelves on either side and she stopped at a room on the left, opening the door.

"Ok," the brunette said. "We have three guest rooms, but today were only using two, mkay? This one is for the guys. You all are lucky; this is the biggest guest room." Naruto cheered. "But it only has two beds so if we all don't end up crashing in the gazebo or entertainment room, y'all will have to figure that out." She shrugged as if saying 'your problem.' Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru walked into the room and lazily _threw_ their bags on the floor, Naruto tried to throw his at Sasuke and missed.

"Should we change now?" Sasuke asked after sending a half-hearted glare towards the blonde. "I doubt we'd bother later on." The brunette in charge nodded and showed Sasuke and Naruro to the only two available two bathrooms besides her mother's. That was off-limits.

"You guys know which room to take, right?" She said over her shoulder to Sakura, Ino and Hinata. The three nodded and they raced to the second guest bedroom where they dropped off their bags and grabbing their clothes before waiting in line to change. "You'd think girls would take longest, but guys take forever to change." Ino complained. "These jeans are feeling toooooooo tiiiightt!" It was probably all the pizza they had along with the chocolate dunkers. Shikamaru was the next in line for the bathroom and Ino looked very upset by this and Sakura knew exactly why.

"Haha, it's not like he's going to fall asleep in a bathroom!" Sakura snickered. The pinkette was cut off by Ino's scarily serious look. "Oh believe me," Ino said darkly. "He_ will_ try." Sakura merely blinked and the doorknob jiggled and Shikamaru walked out in a baggy black T-shirt with dark green sleeping pants that looked suspiciously like the ones he had worn all day. Then again, for Shikamaru, it was always sleeping time.

Ino walked out in a time period longer than all the guys' put together (cough-hypocrite-cough) and she was wearing purple satin pajamas with her long blonde hair let down from its usual ponytail; the bangs covering her left eyes were still there though. It was actually very pretty when down, and it was a rare sight to see.

It only took Sakura less than five minutes to get changed and she met up with everyone in the gazebo after she dropped her old clothes back in the girl's guest bedroom.

Music was already playing on the speakers; it was You're Gonna Go Far Kid by The Offspring which was one of Ten-Ten's favorite songs. She loved rap and rock songs; her two favorite genres.

Everyone sat on stools placed in front of the bar counter and, Ten-Ten playing the role of the bartender, asked everyone what drinks they would want from behind the counter. Sakura and Ino were both whiskey girls at heart, so Ten-Ten didn't even have to ask what they wanted. Hinata had an uncharacteristic taste for beer, but she didn't overdo it ones with a lot of alcohol. She preferred Blue Moon the best so the "bartender" swiped out one for the younger Hyuuga too. Ten-Ten was paying close attention to Neji and she noticed that he was slightly taken aback by Hinata's choice.

_'Since when did Hinata drink?'_ He thought with a frown. _'And just beer of all things, why not wine?'_ Neji himself asked for a little bit of white wine and in return was called a sissy by Ten-Ten and handed instead some Bud Light. "That's what you call a_ real_ man's drink." Ten-Ten said. She pulled one out for herself too, along with Naruto and Sasuke.

Ino made sure everyone didn't take a single lick of their drinks, and she raised her shot glass of whiskey for a toast and the "bartender" gave everyone else glasses to fill with their drinks and do the same.

"Cheers!" Ino said with a grin. "Cheers to a new year, a new beginning, new friends, and more to add onto that ever-growing list of the things you'll say 'how the hell did I get talked into that?!" Naruto laughed loudly and Sasuke and Shikamaru merely smirked and everyone repeated a loud "Cheers!" and knocked back their glasses. "Whoo!" Naruto said shaking his head. "Its been a while since I've had a good drink."

"So should we play 'I've never' now so we don't drink too much before we get a chance?" Sakura asked. Ino nodded in agreement and she started to lay out their version's rules.

"Ok," the blonde started. "The basics are all the same; someone says they've never done something and those who have, have to take a shot of whatever drink you want. But, since we might want to play truth or dare later, everyone is only getting ten shots."

"Damn." Sasuke said with a low whistle. "Your mom has that many shot glasses?" He asked Ten-Ten. She nodded with a proud smile. "One for every state and some important cities like Las Vegas. We have a few from China, Hawaii, and Japan too. And some of those traditional Sake cups."

"Mmmmm." Naruto and Sakura hummed with happy looks. "Sake...yummm."

"Sadly that's like, the only drink I _don't_ have. " Ten-Ten sighed sadly.

"Th-thats ok for me." Hinata said."I've n-never had a taste f-for Sake."

"I've never thought you would really be the type to drink, Hinata." Shikamaru commented with a quirked brow. She blushed. "I-I only like it for the taste." She said shyly. No one was really going to judge her; it would be hypocritical, especially since everyone in the room had their own drink in hand.

"Yeah," Sakura said. "We don't usually drink alcohol just to get away from life like most teens our age do. We drink it because we like the taste and that's it. So we know when too much is too much." Ino, Ten-Ten, and Hinata nodded.

"So are we gonna play or what?" It was Sasuke who said this with the trademark smirk, but the other side was _slightly_ upwards. It could _almost_ be called a smile.

"I call first clockwise!" Sakura yelled. "Now, bartender! Hand out the shots if you please!" she requested. Ten-Ten nodded and passed out ten shot glasses to everyone including herself and they started to fill it up with their drinks.

"Ok," Sakura started with her face scrunched up and looking at the gazebo roof in thought. "I've never got in any sport." she decided on saying. Neji, Ten-Ten, and Ino drank to that one.

"Me and Ten-Ten have Tae-Kwon-Do." Neji explained.

"I used to be in a tennis team before I quit." Ino said sheepishly. "I never got the hand of it."

Ten-Ten hopped in the seat next to Sakura. "I guess its my turn now." She giggled. Sakura was ready to wince; Ten-Ten wasn't shy about anything really, she just wasn't afraid to say things and that made her a very outspoken person like Ino. "Ok...I've never.. had sex." She said mischievously. It was honestly no surprise that Sasuke and Ino drank to that.

"My freshman year." Ino said somewhat proudly.

"Eighth." Sasuke said nonchalantly, like it wasn't that big a deal. That was actually pretty young, and Ino looked strangely defeated.

"Noooo!" She dramatically wailed in defeat. "Now I must drink away my sorrows..." After all that talk about how they mostly just drank for the taste she says that? Ten-Ten and Sakura shook their heads and facepalmed.

It was now Ino's turn. "I've never liked the color red!" That was somewhat lame, but Sakura, Ten-Ten, and Sasuke drank to that one. "Red is a great color!" Sakura said indignantly.

"Ne," Ino waved off. "People have opinions even though most of them may _suck_."

"Why you-" "My turn!" Naruto wisely cut off. "I've never french kissed!" he announced with a blush. Ino gasped dramatically and put her hand on her heart before putting them on Naruro's shoulders. "I am so, so sorry!" she seemed to sob.

"Uhhhh is she drunk already?" Naruto asked the girls wearily. He wasn't used to Ino being Ino completely yet Hinata shook her head with a small smile. "S-soon she w-will be th-though." She shook her head and giggled. "She's a party girl, and th-that will never change."

Well, Sakura, Ten-Ten, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, and even Shikamaru and Neji drank to that one. Sasuke had the most shots down at three so far and Hinata and Naruto the least with none. The blonde made sure to rub in tht he was beating his Uchiha rival.

Neji went next and he took a only second to think. "I've never cross-dressed." Damn, even Neji could think up of a good one and it wasn't a far-fetched guess that this was probably his first time playing this game.

It was a minute or two filled with silence as everyone looked at each other expectantly trying to find out which one of them was the cross dresser. Or cross dresser_s_. Everyone was still staring hard at one another, just _waiting_ for someone to crack.

...

Finally, two people broke and loud gasps were heard louder than the blasting rock music. Naruto grabbed his cup and after a moments hesitation, and Sasuke wrapped his fingers around his glass. They both downed it slowly and tried their hardest to ignore everyone's stares.

Sakura broke the silence. "I can get Naruto cross dressing, but _Sasuke_?!" she squeaked. "Maybe even Neji, but said the 'Iv'e never!'" The older Hyuuga glared.

"It was a dare!" Both of them snapped simultaneously. Truth be told, the two cross-dressers didn't know that the other had crossed dressed. Even Neji couldn't supress a snicker after glaring at Sakura for what he thought was long enough. "I have to wonder how cute a girl Sasuke would make." Ino pondered out loud. "Im not explaining myself to any of you." Sasuke mumbled. "Its my turn." He grumbled in an attempt to change the subject. He was trying to think of something embarassing enough for the girls. What to do, what to do...

"I've never crushed on anyone in this room.." Sasuke said. Ino shrugged as if saying 'what the hell' and she downed a cup with a simple reply of "You guys said crushed, as in, _before, _not in the present. And if it were, I wouldn't tell." even though the girls already had a good guess on who. Ino stared long and hard at Hinata and the younger Hyuuga blushed and downed her glass. Ten-Ten followed suit and took her shot. Three girls had a crush on someone in this room; that was much more than Sasuke or anyone expected.

It was Hinata's turn. She had an idea in mind; she was going to do something uncharacteristically devious. "I've never liked Sake." She said. Naruto and Sakura looked betrayed; Hinata knew both loved the drink and so she used that fact as a way to get them a step closer to being out. Sasuke, Ino, Sakura, Naruto, and Ten-Ten drank to that one. Hinata had a big catch and the seemingly innocent girl smiled almost deviously.

Shikamaru was up and Ino was a bit nervous; true to the Naara name, he was a genius and he could embarass her anytime he wanted to. Especialy since they had been friends for most of their childhood; that time when people do all the stupider things in life.

"Ive never...went streaking." Ino wanted to die as she grasped a glass and everyone stared at her as she slowly brought the drink to her lips. She tipped it back and downed its contents, cursing the Naara six ways to Sunday. "Shikamaru, I hate you." She growled. Shikaru merely waved her off with a mumble. "I know, I know."

Sakura bit her lip "sooo..." she started slowly, always the one to start the questions about the embarrassing facts.

"It was a dare at a party!" Ino snapped. "I was ten, ok?" Naruto gulped down his snickers and Shikamaru just let his chuckles run free since he was there and the image was still clear. It wasn't awkward at all because one; they were like brother and sister and they had even slept in the same bed while waiting for Christmas day during a family party. Two; she was so young that...well... nothing was really _there. _It was more funny than weird, to be honest.

"Sakura just start your fucking turn already!" Ino snapped with her face a bright pink. Now, everyone in the room except for Shikamaru now had a whole new different view on Ino. The snickering didn't stop and Ten-Ten took this chance and leaned over to Sakura to whisper something in her ear. "Ino has only four cups left. I say we get her out." She whispered. Sakura nodded with a devious grin.

"I've never went skinny dipping!" Sakura announced. Ten-Ten looked betrayed. "I told you to get her-" she motioned to Ino- "out not _me_!" the brunette hissed.

Ten-Ten, Naruto, and Ino drank to that one and honestly no one was surprised Naruto's done it.

"I've never been in jail, both not behind bars or not even just for visiting." Ten-Ten said. Ino, Sasuke, Neji and Hinata took a glass to that one.

"M-my father had to speak to someone th-there so he took me and N-Neji." Hinata stuttered when everyone looked at her in surprise. It wasn't like she was mean enough to really do anything extreme and if she did, she was so cute that the cops would just want to pinch her little cheeks and squeal. Ino was a different story however. She went to jail because she thought a police was some strange rapist so the blonde went cra cra on their ass. So she got in trouble, but it wasn't anything major. It was around only a week. Ino told everyone and Naruto laughed at her openly without fearing her killer bitch-slaps for once.

"I just went because my family to own and control most of the police companies of basically the whole Land Of Fire." Sasuke shrugged. You got to admit that's pretty badass. "I'm honestly surprised Naruto hasn't gone to jail at least once." The Uchiha added. Naruto, instead of arguing back like usual, replied "I know right!?" with wide eyes. Facepalm.

It was Ino's turn to get her revenge and so she thought hard. "I've...I've never kissed anyone of the same sex." She said.

Sasuke and Naruto gulped loudly and said simultaneously, "Shit." With that Ino gasped loudly and Sakura burst into laughter. "Cross dressing and now this?!" The pinkette said. "Are you two _gay_?!" Sasuke glared daggers at her and Sakura shrunk back a bit at the intensity. "No i am not gay!" He hissed. "It was an accident." He finally gulped down his shot and Naruto took his too.

"So who was it?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Uchiha."

"Uzumaki."

There was silence. "Y-you're kidding?!" Ten-Ten exclaimed. "Wow bad luck, right?!" Sasuke gave her a look that said 'no shit.' "Someone bumped me into him on the plane. Embarrassing as hell." Sasuke said through grit teeth an closed eyes. Naruto cleared his throat. "Wow, I always have my turn during awkward moments.." he said. "Umm...I don't wear earrings?" He said, more like asked.

Ino, Sakura, Hinata, Ten-Ten and Shikamaru downed a cup. "No!" Ino wailed. "I only have one more shot!"

"I think that's a good thing." Sasuke muttered. Ino stared sadly at her last, filled glass. She just knew someone was going to finish her off this round. Neji didn't even pause in thought. "I've never had any hair color besides brown." He said. It was pathetic but smart since he knew barely anything about Ino but wanted to get her out. He got basically everyone except out Shikamaru with that. Ever heard of the saying six birds with one stone?

"I'm done." Ino said sadly. Sakura and Ten-Ten gave each other high-fives and the guys all gave Neji a pat on the back.

"Traitors!" The platinum blonde hissed. "You all are traitors!"

"Next up is Uchiha with three cups left!" Sakura snickered. "Its my turn anyways." The said Uchiha mumbled. "I've never had any color eyes except for black." He said using Neji's basic idea. Sakura, Ino, Ten-Ten, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, and Hinata drank a shot. That was everyone besides himself and Naruto was catching up to Sasuke with six drinks down.

Hinata was up and everyone looked at her expectantly. Things were getting intense. "I've never h-had an unnatural o-obsession with to-tomatoes.." She stuttered. Sakura pointed a finger at Sasuke and laughed triumphantly.

"Haha! Take a drink Uchiha!"

"My obsession isn't unnatural!" He protested.

"You just admitted you're obsessed with tomatoes openly!"

"W-What!"

"And you stuttered!"

"...If I take a drink will you leave me alone.." Sasuke murmured depressedly. Sakura didn't feel bad one bit as she nodded and he took his eighth shot. She cackled evilly. Shikamaru was up and everyone stared at him.

"I've never taken off any clothing at a party." He said.

"It was at Sakura's fourteenth birthday party last year." Ino said.

"Wait so she's only fifteen?" Sasuke asked. Sakura nodded. "Yeah Hinata is too." and she knocked back her glass. Ten-Ten took a cup and said it was at the pinkette's party too. It was back to the beginning again and it was Sakura's turn and she was undoubtedly figuring out a way to get Sasuke out.

"I've never owned my own car." Sasuke, Ino, Neji, and Shikamaru drank a shot.

"What kind of car do you have Shikamaru?" Ten-Ten asked curiously.

"Just a BMW." He waved off. "I barely drive it around though." Figures. Everyone was surprised he had a car at all.

It was Ten-Ten's turn and Sasuke was done for and he grasped his last shot. "Ive never had spiky hair."

Sasuke took his last glass of his beer as he cursed his hair (weird right?) and Naruto downed his eigth...and ninth and tenth. "What are you doing, dobe?" Sasuke raised a brow.

"Eh, I think I'm done with this game for today." The blonde said sheepishly. "I don't want any more crazy, embarassing secrets let loose. And besides, I've already beat you teme."

"Y'know I think I'm done too." Shikamaru yawned. Everyone else followed suit as they downed their last cups of their alcohol and Hinata pouted slightly as she looked at her many filled glasses.

"I barely drank a-anything during th-the g-game..." she actually pouted, feeling slightly left out.

"Life is one big game Hinata!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically, holding back from draping his arm over her shoulders. "And you just downed a bunch of shots in like a minute!" He said, watching her down her remaining drinks. Hinata blushed and nodded already regretting taking her drinks so fast.

"Hey, I'll be right back." Sakura said. She walked out of the gazebo and walked on the backyard grass and out of sight. Ino stared as she left and Sasuke quirked a brow.

"Hey I wonder where she's go-" Ino was cut off by a squeal, splash, then a scream and everyone rushed out of the gazebo in record time to see what happened.

Sakura was splashing around desperately in the deep side of Ten-Tens pool and she was obviously panicking, her eyes told it all. One second it was Naruto yelling about life being a game and the next it was Sakura panicking as she slowly drowned.

"H-help!" She barely choked out. "I-I can't swim!"

Sasuke was shocked; the confident, bragging, teasing girl who was the one to always argue with him along with Naruto, nd who was carelessly downing shots of whiskey was long gone and instead replaced with a drowning, desperate and scared girl who actually needed help. For a moment the Uchiha was shocked and he couldn't move, but then he snapped back to reality and, despite the fact he was in still in his silk pajamas, dove into the pool to help the drowning Sakura. He was surprised he was the first one to think of jumping in!

The first thing he felt was cold, the water wasn't freezing but it was chilly and he had yet to get used to it, but there wasn't any time for that. He opened his eyes in the clear pool water and searched around and was met with pink. Pink? Sakura...Her hair! Sasuke reached forward and wrapped his arms around what he hoped was her waist and pulled her close to him. He kicked to the surface with Sakura in tow and he was hoping she wasn't unconscious.

He took a gasp of breath when his head was finally above the water, but then his head was dunked under?

_'What the hell?'_ Sasuke thought as he was staring through water for the second time that night. He swam back up and looked around to see a giggling Sakura.

"You nearly drowned and your giggling?!" Sasuke shouted with confusion waving his arms to tread in the water. Sakura's eyes suddenly turned very big and very watery and adorable and her lips formed a small pout.

"I'm sorry to make you jump in the pool Sasuke-kun..." Kun?! _Kun?!_ When the hell did she start calling him _Sasuke-kun_?! He was so confused he was sure he really was dreaming because he was unconscious from swallowing water when he rescued a drowning Sakura because she couldn't swim. Couldn't swim? She was treading on water before his very eyes unless he really was unconscious.

"What's going on?!" Sasuke moaned. He just wanted to sink in the water and _die_ because he was that confused and it was hurting his head from thinking too much.

"Ahehehe." Sakura chuckled nervously. "You see, I really _can_ swim, but I wanted you to come in the pool because I really, _really_ wanted to go in the pool and I didn't want to be alone and I knew you would've said no..."

All of that because she wanted to swim...

"Come catch me Sasuke-kun!" Sakura laughed loudly as she swam away like a fish in the ocean.

_'I wont do it.'_ he thought almost angrily as he watched the giggling pinkette swim away and in circles as she waved for him to come 'catch her.' He still couldn't believe she tricked him into thinking she was drowning just so he would swim with her! Well, yeah it wasn't like he was going to if she asked, but..

"Sasuke look above!" Sakura suddenly yelled. Sasuke was dunked under water yet again when Ino shoved Shikamaru in the water, still wearing his PJ's too, knowing that he wouldnt go in on his own, and the Naara landed close to the Uchiha's head. Ino jumped in after, and Ten-Ten pulled Neji in with her. The spash of all four jumping in at nearly the same time was huge.

"Everyone swim away from Sasuke!" Sakura yelled with laughter. "He's it!"

Ino squealed as she swam to the deeper end and Shikamaru groaned but swam to the stairs so he could sit down until Sasuke got too near. Ten-Ten swam to Sakura and Neji followed over to Shikamaru.

_'I wont do it.'_ Sasuke thought again.

"You have to count to ten underwater you cheater!" Sakura yelled again.

_'I wont do it.'_

"Sasuke-_kun_ you better count or im gonna be 'it' instead!"

"Yeah hurry up!" Ino shouted this.

"I'm in no hurry." Shikamaru yawned, sitting on the steps in a lazy pose, even in the water.

_'I wont do it.'_

"It's a party Sasuke-kun, let loose!"

"Fuck it!" Wasn't this what people called peer pressure? Either way, the Uchiha finally gave in. He sunk underwater and counted to ten, but instead of rising to the surface where everyone would be swimming away from him, he stayed underwater and swam. He grasped a certain leg and yanked it down and he was met with startled jade eyes and pink hair. He was surprised she didn't see him. They swam back up.

"You're it."

"Cheater!"

|-‡†‡‡†‡-|

"N-Naruto, where are w-we going?" Hinata stuttered as Naruto led her out of the house and down a few blocks. They then reached a small park in a clearing surrounded by trees.

"Don't you remember this place?" Naruto asked with a shy grin. He handed her one of the two Blue Moon beers he held in his hands. Hinata didn't reply to his question and he didn't ask again. She grabbed the bottle from his out stretched hand.

"Y'know a white moon would have been fitting for earlier today." He snickered, referring to when he had mooned the cashier and Ino had said it his butt was white. Hinata let out a giggle and she struggled to open the lid.

"Usually I use th-the counter or s-something." She said. Naruto gently took the bottle from her and popped open the cap and did the same with his drink before handing it back.

"Cheers." He said. Hinata bumped her bottle against his. "Cheers." She replied. "So you don't remember the last time we were both here together?" Naruto asked sadly. Hinata didn't like seeing him so down, it wasnt an expression on his face or in his eyes that really screamed Naruto. Instead it said 'sad.'

"No." Hinata said. "I do r-rember."

Naruto brightened up. "I actually enjoyed it." He chirped. Hinata had been in the same spot she was now a year ago on her fifteenth birthday. She had sat on the same swing when Naruto had appeared and sat next to her asking what was wrong.

"Man you looked really down that day." Naruto said.

"Yeah." Hinata agreed. "And it was my birthday." She said sadly.

Her father had given her a talk about how she was failing at becoming a future leader of the Hyuuga clan's business. He was talking about how he might let Hanabi or Neji take over instead.

"Man that sucks." Naruto said. "But it was your first drink and you liked it!" Naruto said giving her a happy little nudge.

That was true too. Naruto had a drink of Blue Moon and he let her have a sip because Hinata had told him she never had any alcohol besides wine before. She had definitely liked it and Naruto had seen this and was nice enough to give her the rest of his bottle. He was careful to make sure she took it easy though.

"Yeah it w-was p-pretty good." Hinata said with a small smile.

"Yeah." Naruto sighed. "Its my favorite too. So how come you were so down that day?" Hinata bit her lip and looked down.

"Its ok." Naruto said. "You don't have to tell me. But I was just thinking since were gonna be friends this year..."

Hinata hid a pout. She knew he was trying to give her the guilt-trip so she would tell him. It worked of course.

"I-its ok." Hinata sighed. "Its r-really complicated." Naruto gave a grin when he realized he won and said, "We got time."

"W-well it was my birthday and my f-father gave me a talk about the Hyuuga company and business."

"Whats the company?" Naruto asked.

"My father is a lawyer and he and some other higher-ups of the H-Hyuuga clan. The rest have other Law Firms but they're all under the same company; the Hyuuga which all solely owned and controlled by my f-father."

"Daaaaaaang!" Naruto said loudly. "Thats a lot to keep up with."

Hinata giggled. "Hmm, not really. You just have to learn the basics and i-its pretty easy. Well it difficult for me since I'm the first born; the Hyuuga heir." Hinata's lip now slightly trembled; this was always a touchy subject. "M-my father t-told me that I was f-f-failing as a leader for the c-clan...he said that my sister, f-five years j-junior, f-far surpassed me..so he said th-that if I continued to d-disgrace the c-clan I would be replaced as h-heir and maybe...d-disowned.." she squeaked out the last part and she looked down at her feet. It was all true. Her father had called her everything she really honestly was. Weak, pathetic, too timid and caring, too gentle.

Her stuttering worsened and lip trembled some more and she was suddenly engulfed in warmth.

"Hinata...don't ever believe that. It's a bunch of bullshit." He whispered. He knew how she felt. Being rejected. It hurt, but somehow, he got over it. He had new, better friends now and he was happy and had so much fun. Hell he barely met anyone at the sleepover but he already felt like family. Being ignored and called a 'nothing' was something he dealt with all throughout his first year at Konoha, when he moved to Suna, and even now, but he found things and people who cheer him up and help him get through the day.

That was all Hinata was feeling and all Hinata needed.

"You know that you are nice. And never can hat be a bad thing, believe it!" Naruto mumbled into her hair.

Hinata didn't know how to reply to his sudden hug and if the mood had not been so sad for her, she probably would've fainted. His arms were wrapped tightly and comfortingly around her and her face was buried in the crook of his neck. It was comfortable. It was how Hinata was beginning to feel around Naruto; comfortable. He made it just so easy to talk about anything and with him her stuttering was almost non-existent.

"But I am weak. And like Neji said, there are things I can never change and the fact that I'm weak will remain." She said without a stutter.

"No. You can change if you try hard enough." Hinata pulled from Naruto and sniffled. She rubbed her eyes with he back of her hand; for once not feeling ashamed or embarrassed of her tears

"You really think so?" She asked in a small, but hopeful voice.

"I know so." He grinned. "And don't believe anything anyone tells you if what your true belief is otherwise. the only person that can control you, is yourself and only yourself. Dont let anyone change that."

|0\/€…|0\/€…|0\/€…

"Hey where did you guys go?!" Screamed Ino from inside the pool.

"Hehe sorry! Me and Hinata went to steal another Blue Moon." Naruto said sheepishly. Hinata nodded vigorously from beside him with a happy smile.

"Well, jump in!" Sakura said, motioning for them to come over. "Were all in our PJ's so don't worry about it!"

Naruto gave a loud holler and jumped in the pool cannon ball style while Hinata just climbed down the stairs to the shallow end. She couldn't swim well but she was ok so she was going to have to stay in the shallow side of the pool.

"Ok, Ino is 'it', so swim from her." Sasuke said. Naruto's gasped dramatically when he realized Sasuke was in the pool and in his night-clothes too. C'mon that's pretty crazy! He was looking like he was having a hell of a time too; he had a small, barely there, smile on his face (no teeth though so it wasn't _that_ unbelievable) and he was swimming around like a fish while waiting for Ino to finish counting underwater. He was actually being fun and lively unless he was way too fucking drunk.

Ino came up to signal she was done counting and she swam for her prey; Sakura. She swam towards Sakura with a menacing look while Naruto made the Jaws 'dun-dun' music in the background.

Sasuke suddenly grabbed Sakura by the shoulders as quick as a snake and shoved her towards Ino. "Sacrifice!" He yelled. Sakura elbowed him but it was too ,ate and Ino had tagged the pinkette.

"Cheater!" She screeched. "Cheater, cheater not fair, not _fair_!"

"There weren't any rules saying you can't sacrifice." Sasuke said innocently, slowly swimming away from her. "Now your it."

"Man that was cold." Naruto whispered to Hinata. She giggled. "Oh, Sakura will get him back all right."

Really it was Sasuke getting back at Sakura for making him think she was drowning even though he already did. But Hinata and Naruto weren't there to see that, sadly.

Sakura was it and she came after a certain blonde who was next to Hinata and chatting like no tomorrow.

"N-Naruto watch out!"

Everyone was laughing together and making fun of each other's reactions when they each got tagged. It was funny when Sasuke 'sacrificed' Sakura to Ino, and all Sakura could reply was "I feel so special," while punching Sasuke in the shoulder. The Uchiha moved by Neji who was less abusive... Neji didn't even get tagged once so Ten-Ten kept poking him non-stop repeating 'tag, tag, tag' over and over and Neji's brow was twitching like crazy. Sasuke changed his mind and went back to Sakura.

Naruto was giving everyone the guilt-trip for swimming in the pool without him and Hinata, but no one really payed attention to him, but Saskuke left Sakura again and went over to start an argument he could count on Naruto continuing. They all walked inside, soaking wet, and they all lined up for the bathrooms yet again to get changed.

After what was probably thirty minutes, everyone was changed out of their soaked clothes and into something they all snatched blindly from their bags so they could get into the bathroom line first. It took a lot longer than anyone thought it would. Wet clothes were sometimes harder to take off though.

Ten-Ten showed them the entertainment room which was a large room with two couches on the left and back wall facing a giant flat-screen T.V on a wood entertainment center that had small knife displays of the shelf with some photos. There was a book shelf filled with a bunch of movies both new and old along with some game disks for different game consoles. There were bean bags randomly scattered around and there was also a billiard table for playing pool on the right side of the room.

"I don't really feel in the mood for truth or dare this time." Ten-Ten said with a frown. "Should we just get the last drinks of the day and watch some movies?" She suggested.

"Only if you make the popcorn and get my drink." Neji said, plopping down on a random beanbag.

"And my drink!" Ino, Hinata, Naruto, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Sasuke said at the same time with devious smiles, minus Shikamru and Hinata for the smile. Ten-Ten sweatdropped.

"Fine." She growled. "Just agree on a movie till I get back."

* * *

**A/N Yo! yeah I know, Sasuke OCness, but like I said, its only because his family wasn't murdered by his brother, and also because he doesn't want revenge cause the dude who did it went to jail and died! Also sorry for my story's lack of progress! There is an actual plot for this believe it or not -.- I'm just worried that I might rush things and I still want to have how the characters act and their personality/characteristics clear to everyone. If there's anything you guys would recommend that would help my story be better please let me know! Thanks!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Chapter Seven! It took me a while to come up with this chapter and im proud of how it came out :) I hope you guys agree! Well in this chapter we find out why Naruto hates the word Bastard and we learn about a very scary sensei that can make a grown man piss their pants. (0.0) well at least in the real anime so hopefully i keep that certain character in check. Well I hope you enjoy and on with the story! Oh and any Gaara fans? Well see a lot of him this chapter :3 except ****he's still in his psycho killer emokid mode (0_0) itll go away...eventually...like way later aheh heh...**

Oh and I don't own Disney, the lion king, or Naruto and any of its characters.

* * *

Naruto sobbed openly. Sakura cried softly wh-ile clutching her pillow. Ten-Ten, Ino, and Hinata were tearful and hugged each other while coughing loudly to hide their hiccuping sobs. Sasuke wouldn't stop sniffling no matter how hard he tried, and Shikamaru refused to look at anyone. Neji kept his eyes closed. The hardest do-not-cry challenge that almost everyone in the room failed. Some could barely pass for not crying, like Neji Sasuke and Shikamaru, but they held their ground, refusing to let the tears free. The hardest do-not-cry challenge. Watching...The Lion King.

"Why.." Sakura whispered, tightly hugging her knees to her chest. "Why did Mufasa have to die?!"

"Just what kind of sick torture is this?!" Naruto wailed. He hugged his fox plushie he got out from his bag. "Dammit Disney, you sick minded _bitches!"_ If it were any other movie Sakura would've called him an idiot for taking it too seriously, but now...this was The Lion King.

Sasuke kept sniffling. "Poor...poor Simba." He muttered. Sakura stared, surprised _the_ Uchiha Sasuke was that touched. But then again, it was the Lion King, the only movie other than Titanic that could make anyone who watched cry no matter how many times they've already seen it. "I feel you." Sakura said sadly. She wiped a tear and Ino flipped off the T.V when Scar appeared a.k.a the person who killed Mufasa. Everyone looked away from the screen untill it turned back to poor old Simba.

"Fuck Scar!" Ino said sadly. "God, if I ever go to the zoo again and see a_ fucking_ hyena I am going to _murder_ it." She growled while viciously wiping away her own tears. Hinata merely whimpered as her lip slightly trembled. She was clutching a Simba plushie she had gotten for her birthday a long time ago. She just knew they were going to end up watching The Lion King. One way or another...

"I don't really want to watch this anymore..." Ten-Ten whispered. Shikamaru readily grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned off the T.V.

"I'm tired." The pineapple head yawned. Right after Mufasas death...he yawned..everyone glared at him and the Naara shrunk back slightly. "You're disrespecting Mufasa!" Naruto hissed with intensity in his voice. Shikamaru blinked; he didn't even remember who the character Naruto said was.

"Honestly, it's just a movie." Neji said with quirked brows. He didn't know why everyone was making such a fuss about something that wasn't even real, but apparently that was the wrong thing to say and Ten-Ten angrily hurled her pillow at him and the Hyuuga easily caught it, but then Sakura and Ino threw one too and he couldn't catch those. _Girls._

"Its more than that!" Ten-Ten said with tears streaming from her eyes. It was like a moving, heart-wrenching movie scene, minus the heart-wrenching part since absolutely nothing about the scene was sad in any way except for the way she professed how the movie was _'so much more.'_

"I-Its _so_ much _more_..." she repeated and smacked him again with a pillow for good measure before taking it back with another glare. Sakura and Ino took back their pillows too.

"I don't ever want to see a movie like that again." Sasuke said quietly. "Yeah." Everyone agreed (besides Shikamaru and Neji, but they don't really count.) It was silent for a few moments then Hinata spoke up.

"What n-now?" She said softly.

"I think maybe we all should sleep." Ten-Ten finally said to Shikamaru's relief. "School is tomorrow and it's already two thirty in the morning."

"Yeah." Everyone agreed; they all totally forgot it was still a Monday, well Tuesday now. Ino called dibs on the first couch and Ten-Ten took the second one before anyone had the chance. They both took out their blankets (Ino had a purple fuzzy one and Ten-Ten's a silky brown with a picture of a bear) that they got from their bags. After the whole pool fiasco, everyone took their bags and put them in the entertainment room then went to change out of their soaking wet pajamas.

Everyone else took the floor and set up their make shift beds with pillows and blankets and some stuffed animals in Hinata, Sakura, and Narutos case. Sasuke finally stopped sniffling as he made his own makeshift bed with his customized blanket with the Uchiha fan symbol. Everyone got settled down and stared at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to catch them and drop them off to the next day.

"Hey," Sakura suddenly said breaking the short silence. "How did you and Naruto meet anyways?" She asked Sasuke. Everyone curiously waited for the Uchihas answer.

"We sat next to each other for the flight to Konoha from Suna" He said. "So I guess we became sort of like friends since then and we just kept chatting which is unavoidable with this dobe." That was deep. Friend was a strong word for Sasuke.

"Omg...I'm_ so_ sorry." Ino said in a voice laced with pity. "Naruto...for seven hours..." she said, referring to the long flight from Suna to Konoha. Naruto grabbed Shikamaru's pillow from under the pineapple heads head and threw it at Ino. "That's cruel!" He yelled. Sasuke chuckled and Shikamaru snatched back his pillow.

"So what would you guys all consider us girls?" Ten-Ten asked. Sasuke stopped chuckling and Naruto paused in thought. It was quiet while everyone just thought about her question. It was more tough to answer than it sounded; let's be realistic, they've all know each other for barely two days.

"...I guess if I can call Naruto my friend...you guys are too...I'm going to be honest...I had fun today." Everyone cheered at Sasukes comment. "That was deep bro." Naruto said cheekily. He blushed and sunk deeper into his customized Uchiha blanket.

"You guys are my bestest friends eveeeerrrrrr!" Naruto shouted happily. That was expected.

"I guess you're all my...uhm.. acquaintances." Shikamaru yawned.

"What do you mean by that?!" Ino yelled.

"Troublesome.." he muttered. "Neji..." Ten-Ten said. "How bout you?" Everyone turned towards the older Hyuuga.

"I guess you can be considered my...friends." Wow. Even Neji used the word 'friends' unlike Shikamaru. "Now can we please go to sleep?" He pleaded desperately. Ten-Ten nodded. "Ok ok sleep it is," and she curled up in her blankets and was fast asleep within minutes. Sakura was the only one left awake after staring at the ceiling for around ten minutes or so, but soon enough, Naruto singing 'The Circle Of Life' in his sleep was her lullaby and she dozed off.

**£0\/€…£0\/€…£0\/€…**

"Ok class, you guys can do the same as yesterday." Kakashi-sensei said, spinning on his chair and reading his book. "Do whatever as long as you don't leave the classroom and burn down the building." He said like he had yesterday. Naruto noticed how he didn't say "and don't kill anyone." He turned around in his chair and looked at the person behind him who was texting rapidly on his phone.

"Hey, Teme!" Naruto said cheerfully. "Yo." Sasuke replied, not even looking up from his phone.

"Who ya texting?" Naruto curiously peeked over at his phone. "A bunch of people." "Like who?" "Sakura, Ino Ten-Ten, Neji, Hinata and I tried Shikamaru but he wont answer." Sasuke said. If the Uchiha actually bothered to check, he would see that Shikamaru had his head on his desk, trying with all his might to fight away all his jumbled up thoughts to find sleep.

_'No wonder his fingers are moving so fast and he's non-stop typing.'_ Naruto thought with a sweat drop. He whipped out his own phone and scrolled down the contacts list to the 'T's. Sasuke's phone suddenly gave another beep and the Uchiha groaned. _"Really_ Naruto?!" He moaned.

"Hehehe now you're texting _me_ too!" The blonde said cheerfully. He also gave Hinata a hello, a pitiful 'please dont hit me for texting you' to Sakura and Ino, a 'whaddup homefry?' to Ten-Ten, Neji and Shikamaru though he knew the lazy ass wasnt going to text back.

_'This is already hard work and no one even texted me back yet.'_ He thought. He suddenly sympathized with Sasuke.

**Abuser!: Stupid! I wont hit u! And im too far!**

Naruto let out a sigh of relief at Sakuras text. He was safe; for now...

**Stupid blonde: Please isnt aways enough...**

Naruto loved his name for Ino. It was fitting, especially since that's what they dubbed each other ever since the day at the mall. He knew she was just kidding because when he looked over at Ino she was looking back at him with her tongue out and a wink. He already loved his friends like family and he stuck his tongue back out at the other blonde childishly.

**Teme: dobe! You text me as I tell u im busy!**

"Really Sasuke?" Naruto asked skeptically with his eyes narrowed. "You text me that when you're right behind me?"

"No time...must...text back.." Sasuke said. He was so concentrated on texting everyone that he, for once, didn't even have the time to glare at all his crazy fangirls latching themselves on his arms or toying with his hair. He didn't even tell them to fuck off which was definitely a new accomplishment for the Uchiha.

**Girly Face: stop texting in class Naruto.**

Naruto snickered as he typed a reply. 'You just did!' He sent. Neji didnt text back and when Naruto looked over at him across the classroom the Hyuuga had something close to a pout. Speaking of Hyuugas the other one just text back.

**The nice one!: Hello Naruto!**

He just finished texting back Ino and Sakura when he got Hinata's text._ 'This is hard work.'_ He thought again; he's never texted so many people at once in his whole life! He texted a 'hows it goin' back to Hinata and went back to everyone else. Soon enough, he looked just as ridiculous as the text-a-holic Uchiha right behind him; texting fast and intently with his phone right up to his nose and smirking, laughing, or frowning at certain responses. But that was Naruto, Sasuke wouldnt smile for a person, let alone a text. Sasuke's smilephobia was definitely going to change _sometime_ soon.

**Ding! Ding! Ding!**

Four groans were heard as the bell rang for the next class and Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino reluctantly put their phones away and met up with each other as a crowd in front of the door. They all groaned because they knew Kakashi was generous with his free time; other classes weren't going to be the same. They were right and Kureai-sensei's was brutal; she started to introduce the text books. Still, at the end of class she gave some five minute free time. That was most classes.

"I'm scared..." Naruto whimpered, on his way to third class. Everyone shot him a curious glance. "Why?" They all asked.

"I got Anko-sensei's class." He said softly, staring at his schedule. Sakura shivered and looked at him with pity. "I feel you." She said with a dramatic hand over her heart. "I have her after gym. Scary as hell."

Anko-senei was more than scary. She was terrifying. Sick minded and terrifying and that creepy smile... Naruto remembered the first time he met her and he almost fainted as easily as Hinata as soon as she opened her mouth. She looked like she was only twenty-five, pretty young for a teacher, but most of the new teachers this year were younger than the normal. Had to be a Konoha thing. She had purple hair that was tied up in a spiky ponytail similar to Shikamaru's and she wore the leaf headband around her forehead. She wore a long unbuttoned, brown pea coat and a fishnet shirt underneath and _nothing_ else. Her breasts didn't show that much, but it was more of a view than should be allowed. It was clear as day she didn't wear a bra; there were rumors she wore _tape._

"_See this, class?" Anko-sensei said. "This here is a floor boxing champion belt, medal, trophy, and certificate meant only for first place winners." She dangled her feet over the desk she sat on (which so happened to be a students) and she showed off the wrestling belt and the teens look at it in awe._

_"But you're a girl." A guy said with his face scrunched up in confusion._

_"Tell me something like that again and soon you will be too." Anko said with a creepy smile on her face. The smile wasn't fake either; it looked like it was because she was enjoying _something_. The boy who had said the sexist comment seemed to shrink a little._

_"Your new principal Tsunade told me I can teach." Anko continued. "And I will. I will teach each one of you maggots a_ lesson_ if you tick me off. It's not only the ring I can fight in and discipline is discipline."_

_The class was silent. "Good. I think I like you brats." Anko said with another smile. "You can decide if that's a good thing or not."_

Naruto gulped again. Definitely freaky.

"I still don't get why she calls us all maggots." Ten-Ten said thoughtfully.

**Ding ding ding**

Naruto froze._ 'That...that was the bell...'_ he thought. _'The_ late _bell.'_ Sasuke gave Naruto a look of pity and a pat him on the shoulder. "Anko is your class?" The Uchiha said. "Well, you're late. Nice knowing you." No it wasn't, but it was still fitting to say it. The blonde whimpered and he ran off to his class, repeating how dead he was going to be over and over in his head. He was just wondering how she was going to kill him off...there were so many ways...

He stopped in front of the door and gulped. He took a deep breath and put his hand on the door knob and twisted as slowly as he could without it seeming too weird. He opened the door and he took a shy step forward and closed the door behind him. Suddenly, a knife was lodged deep into the wood of the door centimeters above his head and Narutos eyes bulged. _'How the hell did a knife get allowed into the school?!'_ Was his only thought. It wasnt really a knife, it was just a wooden dango stick, but it moved too quickly for him to tell.

"You're late you brat." Anko said with that creepy smile and head tilt. Her eyes glinted as she got up off of a random students desk and stalked over to a frozen Naruto. The blond stood stock-still and watched as Anko-sensei got closer. "Say..." she seemed to purr happily. "We're practicing with swords today. Wanna be my partner?" she offered.

"N-no." Naruto declined quietly. Anko reached above the blonde's head and ripped the dango stick out of the door (that now had a small hole in it) and toyed around with it. Naruto knew she wasn't going to hurt him in any way especially with a stick. It was a school and that's just plain crazy! But it didn't help calm his nerves at all.

"Good answer." Anko-senei smiled. "Now find your seat, brat." Naruto scurried over to a seat among the silent class and Anko sat on her own desk this time and pulled out a stick of Dangos out from a paper bag. God damn, the woman seemed obsessed!

"You heard what I said today." She said with a mouthful of Dango_. "_Today we're practicing with swords. The old katana type sword except in wood. No difference. "

"But I thought this was a science class?" Someone dared to say.

"Yeah, yeah and were all _experimenting_ with our skills." The teacher waved off. "That's what you do in science right? Experiment. Now for warm ups I want you al to drop on that floor and give me twenty push-ups and situps."

Everyone sat in their seats with a confused look. "Now!" Anko yelled. The whole class dropped to the floor and began doing push-ups and sit-ups while the teacher prowled around the room to give criticism where needed.

"Elbows crossed, brat!" She yelled at one unfortunate student.

_'This is basically another PE.'_ Naruto thought, pushing himself up from the ground. He was trying his hardest to make sure his butt wasn't sticking all the way out in the air._ 'But I think Id actually rather Gai-sensei...'_ he suddenly gave a small chuckle. 'Man Shikamaru would die in this class!' He thought with a smile. He finished up and when the class was done, so was Anko-sensei. With her Dangos of course; she probably didn't even bother with the exercises.

"Take a seat!" She barked. _"I_ will chose you're partners and you both will spar with each other once I give you some basics. Don't kill each other is what I ask cause I'll be the one to have to deal, got it?!"

"Yes ma'am." The class obediently chorused. Everyone sat back in a seat and waited quietly for their teacher to chose their partners. "Everyone on the first and third row look behind you and there is your partner." Anko said. "It's not magic kids." Naruto looked behind his chair and saw the red-head with the love symbol written in red his forehead. Naruto didn't know if it was just paint or if it was a _real _tattoo; it had more of that under the skin look, but..

The only reason Naruto remembered him was because the red-head was in Kakashi-sensei's class for home room too, but he remembered that the redhead didn't talk to anyone. He didn't do anything really.

"Hey!" Naruto cheerfully chirped to the red-head. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! Who are you?" Naruto twisted around to hive him a friendly handshake. "Gaara." Gaara replied. He didn't take Narutos outstretched hand and kept his arms crossed.

"Pay attention back there!" Anko yelled, throwing a piece of chalk at the back on Narutos head violently. Naruto didn't remember school being so crazy and violent. Teachers in Konoha were crazy! He turned back around in his seat and faced the front.

"There's a stab, slash, swing and other useless moves that people decided to put a name to. The aim is just to swing around and hope to defeat your opponent. Don't hit each other too hard and don't hit the head. These are wood so you wont die. Most likely." Anko said. "Move all the chairs so you're able to move around freely and you can begin."

Naruto got to work with moving all the chairs to the side of the room with some other students and he asked Gaara to go get the swords from the front of the room. It was odd that they all were sword fighting in a normal everyday classroom that they were supposed to be learning _science_ in, but...well, there really was no 'but.' Gaara just stood up from hos seat, as if expecting Naruto to be the one to move it, and sat back down on the floor and didn't even move.

"Hello? I asked if you get the swords from the front?" Naruto asked again. Gaara merely closed his eyes and didn't move a muscle. Narutos eyebrows quirked. He was more emo than Sasuke and just about as annoying.

"Look I was trying to be friendly Mister, but that's not gonna work if you don't act like we both are a team, because we're partners whether you like it or not!" Gaara still stood up and still had his arms crossed, totally remaining unresponsive. Naruto threw his arms up in the air (along with one of the unfortunate chairs) and stomped over to the front to grab two swords. He held himself back from throwing Gaara's at him and instead held it up for him to take.

"I have no intention of holding back." Gaara finally spoke in a raspy and quiet voice after grabbing the wood sword. The spiky blonde gave him an odd look, not knowing what he meant. "Okaaaaay..." Weird.

Naruto stepped back from Gaara with his sword in hand he dramatically brought his leg up in a crazy action movie fighting pose. He couldn't help himself sometimes; he couldn't ever stay serious for very long. He made that 'waaah!' sound like ninjas made in movies, and while he was caught up in his own silliness, Gaara unexpectedly charged. Naruto was completely caught off guard and Gaara whacked the sword right across the bridge of his nose. There was a sickening crunch as Naruto fell over, clutching his nose.

"Ahgh!"Naruto grunted in pain. He held his nose gingerly as it started bleeding all over the place. "Dammit!" Anko yelled angrily. "You weren't supposed to hit each other _that_ hard!" She rushed over to Naruto's side with a box of tissues. The whole class turned over to look at the cursing teacher. "Mind your own business and get back to work!" She barked in agitation.

Anko had ushered a moaning Naruto out the door and to the nurses office while Gaara stayed in class, being let off because it was still only the first week of school. It was a pathetic excuse for someone who broke a classmates nose, but anyone could see that Anko didn't really have it in her to deal with it. Naruto was left to go all around the first floor of the school in a search for the nurses, but he was new almost every inch of the building and as his nose began to bleed profusely, he began to think more about popping into Kakashi-sensei's room (the only one he remembered) to ask for directions. That is, until someone popped right out of the room next to him.

"Sabura-han!" Naruto said in surprise, not getting his words out the way he wanted because of his nose. "What a coinbebence." The pink hair girl merely gave him a curious glance before slumping her shoulders and falling into step next to him. "Well, I would say its good to see you but really it's not." Sakura mumbled depressedly.

"Why's bat?"

"Well I wouldn't be seeing you now if I didn't have a weeks worth of detention..." she cast her eyes downward and Naruto saw that she, along with her negative attitude, she looked absolutely furious. _'On the first week?'_ Naruto thought in surprise. Not even _he_ got into that much trouble on his good days.

"Ib sorry." He said honestly. Normally, he would've had his hands resting on the back of his head in his trademark casual pose, but he was still clutching his nose that was painful to even think about. "What bor?" He asked.

"Eh, mouthing off to the teacher." The pinkette grumbled. "But it wasn't my attitude this time, it was the damn teacher!" She clenched her fists in aggravation. "Ugh I hate my teacher!" Naruto gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Dude, at beast your bose ibnt boken." Sakura seemed to just notice that Naruto was bleeding and leaking blood through his fingers and she stared with wide eyes.

"You should probably go to the nurse!" She exclaimed. _'Well no duh,'_ Naruto bit his tongue so he wouldn't say the sarcastic comment aloud, and he nodded in agreement instead.

"Here I'll show you where it is." Sakura said. She grabbed Naruto's wrist roughly yet carefully, not wanting to touch his bloody fingers, and dragged him around where the blonde guessed the nurses office was. Sakura told him that she had to go to the principal's office and since the nurses was right next to it, she thought that she might as well take him there. He tried to thank her but it didn't come out the way he wanted and it sounded more like 'fuck you.'

It wasn't that far from where they met up with each other and Naruto had waved Sakura a goodbye and she waked to the principal's with slumped shoulders. He really felt bad for her; sometimes a person's mouth just moved faster than their head. It wasn't really a thing people can help most of the time. It was something he knew from experiences.

He walked into the nurses office and he saw a black-haired woman sitting behind the desk, rapidly typing away at the computer to where her fingers moved around in a blur. When she caught sight of his nose she stood up abruptly and rushed over to his side.

"What the heck happened to you?!" She yelled. Naruto was expecting something like that. It probably looked a lot worse that it felt, not the other way around.

"Oh yeah I'm fine, thanks for asking." The spiky blonde said sarcastically.

"I'm Shizune, the school nurse," she introduced herself, ignoring his comment. "Sit down on the bed here and I'll take a look at your nose."

There really wasn't much to look at, it was so obviously broken, but he did as he was told and sat down on one of the beds and he tried to get comfy. It was nearly impossible since the beds were rock hard and suddenly made him feel like he had the boniest butt ever. For such a rich school they sure had some lousy beds!

Shizune had on rubber gloves and a box of tissues and other stuff he couldn't put a name to, but he knew for sure that they were used to fix him up as much as possible. It was probably going to sting. A lot. She took her spinny chair (every teacher seemed to have one) and sat in front of him, gingerly removing his bloodstained hand away from his nose. She looked ready to scream when she saw the broken thing and her face turned an angry red.

"Really?! You squeeze noses when they're _just_ bloody!" She scolded. "You squeezed a broken nose and squeezed way too hard. You cause more damage than you probably had in the first place!" Naruto winced at her words.

She wet some paper towels in the nearby sink and started to clean up the mess that was called Narutos face. It hurt just like he expected. A lot. But every time in jumped or tensed up too much Shizune would scold him and act very Sakura-like and hit him in the arm. She wiped all the blood off his face, and she frowned at he bruising. "Were gonna need to take you home, kid." she said. "Maybe you can get fixed up better at a real doctor's, but this is the best I can do for now."

"No no no, I'm fine." Naruto said waving one of his hands around with a smile. "I'm perfectly _okay_! School is almost over anyway, so can't I just finish up the day?"

Shizune hit him in the arm. "Idiot!" She screeched. "I was trying to be nice and give you a day off, take it!" But instead of giving in, Naruto shook his head again. "C'mon Shizune, right before lunch?" He complained. "That's the best part of the day! Don't make me miss it!" Shizune pouted with crossed arms and she eventually pointed to the door, signaling that Naruto could leave.

"If that nose gets worse don't come back to me!" She yelled. Naruto slammed the door shut behind him as loud as he could, and as he walked towards the cafeteria (Anko-sensei's class was almost over) all he heard was Shizume's screeching.

"Nag nag nag." Naruto mumbled. It was an old lady thing.

He wondered how Sakura was; she looked pretty bummed out when she left him at Shizunes. He wondered how much trouble she was going to be in. He would just ask her during lunch. Sasuke had already asked everyone if they wanted to sit at the same table together as a group, which was weird for him of all people to ask, but it wasnt a bad thing. All eight of them were supposed to sit in the back table on the left and Naruto was looking forward to it sinces hes never really been to the school cafeteria; yesterdays lunch everyone went to CoCos.

He also wanted to talk to Hinata; this years goal for him was to make her become someone who believed in herself with as much confidence as possible. He didn't want to change her personality or attitude, but he could see it in her eyes that she wanted to change only a little bit, and he was determined to help her as much as possible. She stuttered, but already that was starting to go away and Naruto was proud of himself for being the reason she spoke more confidently even though they only knew each other for three days. It made him feel happy he did something good for someone else.

He loved Konoha, he really did. Unlike Suna, people here liked him and already he felt like he was apart of a family. In Suna, all people there shunned him and he never got along with anyone. He hated to admit it, but because of his solitude in Suna...it somewhat made him a bad person. He became colder and began to think that all life was, was unfair and cruel. He began to look at the darker side of things and welcome it. He would cause trouble everywhere and find happiness in other people's frustration and anger. He forgot how beautiful life could be, but when he moved to Konoha, everyone was different ad filled with warmth. strangers would wave and smile at people they didn't even know would probably never see again, and Naruto was almost immediately greeted by people who cared about him in the two minutes they met. He remembered what life was really about, and no he has a new family. Things were turning for the best, and nothing could've been better than now.

**|0\/€…|0\/€…|0\/€…**

"So Sakura, I heard from a call that your teacher was having a hard time dealing with you, correct?" The principal sad with a raised brow. Sakura fidgeted in her seat and gave a nod. Tsunade, the principal, was really a girl and she was pretty scary looking. She claimed she was fifty-two, but she looked more in her mid-thirties. She had blonde hair pulled back into two pigtails and a purple diamond rested in the center of her forehead. And her breasts were..._huge_. She couldn't help it, but sitting in front of Tsunade made her feel flat as a board.

"Well, are you going to tell me why?" she said impatiently, tapping her red painted fingers on the desk.

"I uhh...was talking and she scolded me and according to her I got too 'snappy.'" That wasnt the whole, real story, but that was what basically happened in the beginning. Tsunade looked amused and leant back in her chair. "Snappy?" She seemed to laugh. "Like I haven't heard that one before."

Sakura frowned while Tsunade laughed. "Your teacher, Sana, is a prat." She said, rolling her eyes. Sakura's eyebrows seemed to suddenly want to escape her forehead as Tsunade continued. "Six students have come from her class today with the same story as yours, so don't feel too bad."

Saura gaped. "Really?" she said incredulously

"Yeah! I mean, I don't think she has a bad temper, but it almost seems like her life goal is to ruin everyone's life." Tsunade said, suddenly sounding like a gossiping school girl. "Shes an old _hag_."

Sakura giggled. "And her annoying accent makes it _impossible _to pay attention to her lectures!" She accidentally let out. She covered her mouth, getting ready to be scolded for her rude insult to her teacher, but Tsunade banged her fist again the desk (which started to crack) with a loud laugh.

"I have to deal with her speeches during meetings, Sakura!" She said with a pout. It almost seemed like Sakura was talking to Ino or another friend. Tsunade was so open and Sakura just loved her! She was really nice, and she was making fun of teachers with her, which wasn't something you normally do with a principal every day exactly.

"Ah well, it seems to be almost lunch time Sakura." Tsunade sighed. "Ne, no detention. You're free to go, and you can skip the rest of your class. Nothing more to say, so scat! Leave before I change my mind." She shooed the pinkette away. Sakura stood up and gave Tsunade a friendly wave before leaving, but the older woman didn't see the gesture because she was leaning down to reach a desk drawer. when she straightened back up, she had a Sake bottle in hand and Sakura gave a major sweatdrop as Tsunade's eyes widened to saucers when she saw Sakura was still standing in the doorway. "D-dont tell anyone about this!" She hissed. "I let you off D-hall so you can give me something in return, right?!"

Sakura put her hands up and said "My lips are sealed." before finally leaving. Her principal was a drunkee. Wow. Uhm...not expecting that..That would explain her attitude though.

The lunch bell rang as soon as she reached the cafeteria doors (wow perfect timing) and she pushed the doors open, surprised that she wasnt the first one in the cafeteria. There was Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Ino and two boys she didn't know who were already holding trays and traveling around to pick out foods.

"Ino! Sasuke! Shikamaru!" Sakura yelled. They turned around to face her and Ino gave a happy wave, holding her currently empty tray with her free hand. "Did Sana chew you out too?" She asked. "She got me for texting after you left class Sakura. I didn't bother with the principal I just walked over here. Sasuke got in trouble for telling off all the girls groping him, and Shikamaru for trying to sleep." Sakura giggled at Shikamaru's usual sleeping antics even though she was lightly pissed since the stupid teacher got mad at Sasuke for just telling some chicks to leave him the fuck alone. It wasnt even his fault.

"I got in trouble for arguing with her!" She shrugged. She stood neat to Ino, Sasuke and Shikamaru, and grabbed herself a tray, piling on food as they walked and talked, which was becoming more difficult since students were starting to file in the cafeteria. "She got mad at me for having a phone just in my bag! I didn't even bring it out!" Saskura said aleeady getting frustrated again. "So I defended myself politely at first saying wasnt going to use it or anything, but then she starting screaming detention every time I opened my mouth and she started calling me 'snappy!'"

Ino frowned and shook her head. "That's bull." Sasuke said. "She got mad at me in second period for telling some of those annoying fangirls to let go of me. So I ended up going to the office for being 'rude' but the principal let me slip."

"Same here." Sakura and Shikamaru said.

"Sakura!" Sakura heard Ten-Ten shout across the lunch room. The brunette ran over, dragging Neji by his wrist and with Hinata following close behind. "How did you get here way before us?" She asked. "Youre almost always last when it comes to lunch."

Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, and Sasuke shared looks. "Long story." They all said. "Where's Naruto?" Ino asked.

"You wouldnt belive it." Neji said, shaking his head. "He already has all his lunch and is sitting at the table where we are all supposed to sit together."

"What?!" Ino screeched. Heads turned over to stare. "My tray is still empty!" She held up her tray to Nej's face. "No fair!" She walked over to the Ame, Sound, and Kiri food area (most of the seafood and noodles/pastas) and started to fill her plate up rapidly with all her favorites before moving to another section of the cafeteria. The cafeteria was so big that she didn't really have to worry about waiting in lines for some of her favorite foods.

"I guess we should all hurry up too before Naruto finishes." Sakura said. _'I bet he has at least three trays filled to as much as it can carry, though.'_ she thought. The group agreed and scattered, with their own trays in hand. Ten-Ten stood by Neji with a grin. "Dont you love KHS?" She asked. "No." She ignored his answer. "Our cafeteria is like a buffet with food from all around the world." She said to Neji.

"I prefer the Konoha food though. The pizzas, ramen, chicken and stuff." She laughed. "Yeah all the fatty foods." She pat her stomach and Neji gave her a weird look. "Why am I following you again?" He asked.

"Just to show you around. Give you a feel of the place." Ten-Ten walked over to the Konoha area and began to scoop on some spaghetti onto her plate after grabbing a pepperoni pizza. "Should I get more?" Ten-Ten asked Neji uncertainly. Neji shook his head. "Don't eat too much." He advised. "Remember, we have gym afterwards."

"Oh yeah you're right!"

Neji grabbed a plate too and filled it up with a healthy salad Ten-Ten highly disapproved of. Normally, she would've shoved a piece of pizza onto his plate, but she let him have his salad for now. With both plates full, they walked over to the table where Naruto sat, eating his ramen with happy, cheerful slurps. Sakura, Ino, Hinata, Sasuke, and Shikamaru had already gotten all of their food so Ten-Ten and Neji were last.

"Naruto, what the hell happened to your nose?!" Ino said loudly with a mouth full of chicken. "I god whacked with a bord."

"You got wacked with a board?" Sasuke said weirdly.

"No a bord!" Naruto corrected.

"A board."

"No!"

"Well that's what you're saying!"

"Well you can't uberstand english teme!"

"Well you can't _speak_ it."

Everyone shared a look. It seemed to happen at least every two minutes, Naruto and Sasuke arguing over something completely ridiculous. It was annoying, but most of the time funny to see how far-fetched their insults could get.

"Are you two going to waste our entire time arguing or actually eat and chit-chat happily." Sakura exasperatedly said. Shikamaru had a doubtful face for the chit-chat happily part. _'Yeah,'_ he thought sarcastically. _'And I'll crap lollipops.'_

"What majestic and youthful beauty!" Naruto and Sasuke suddenly stopped mid-insult (what a miracle) to stare up at the odd person who said the odd comment.

"I have never seen anything more beautiful in my whole entire life!" The teen looked like he was going to cry and he suddenly did with rivers of tears streaming out from his impossibly wide eyes. He was that kid in Gai-senseis that basically was a Gai-sensei. He had the green jumpsuit, the orange leg warmers and the black bowl cut hair. And this kid...he had...the biggest fricking eyebrows! They were bushier than Gai's!

"I am Lee!" He announced to the group of eight, who all seemed to be frozen in place. A noodle fell from Naruto's mouth. Lee turned towards Sakura and he grabbed her hand as he bent down on one knee. "And I have never seen more beauty that you!" Ino fumed beside Sakura and the pinkette blushed with a flattered yet weirded out expression.

"Will you be my girlfriend!?" he asked with a fiery passion.

Everyone at the table gave a major sweat drop. 'So straight forward...' they all thought. Suddenly, Ino wasnt very jealous aymore and she waited with a hidden grin for Sakuras response. "Uhm...sorry, Lee, but youre...way too...uhm..weird." Lee looked broken and Sakura gently took her hand back.

"Weird...?" Lee said. "I am...weird?!" He stood up in a slow and dramatic way and gave Sakura a thumbs up with a grin. Why was he grinning?

"Sakura-san!" He said loudly. "I will change your opinion of me and soon _you_ will be the one to ask me to be _my_ girlfriend."

Again, Shikamaru had the same thought. _'And Ill crap lollipops.'_

Lee left the table blowing a disgusted Sakura a kiss and the pinkette cringed, totally weirded out.

**-()-()-()-()- (lazy chapter break thingy)-**

Naruto missed the bus because he was too busy chatting with his friends in the hall ike always. He dint really mind though, his house wasnt that far. He took his time walking through the halls of KHS, stopping every now and then to talk to some students on their way to detention, and when he got nearer to the front doors there were less and less people hanging around. That's what he thought at least.

"Hey!" Someone shouted. Naruto didn't pay attention; it was obvious that person wasn't speaking to him. "Newbie!" Now it seemed more likely...Soon enough, a boy with shaggy black hair that reached his shoulders and that looked like he was in his junior or senior year, ran up to Naruto with a group of other guys surrounding him. Naruto gave them a bright, friendly grin and stopped so the group could catch up.

"You're new here right?" The teen with the shaggy black hair asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said, "I'm from Suna. Name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

The black-haired teen grin. "Sobau." He answered. "Since you're a newbie how bout some Konoha hospitality?" Not waiting for an answer, Sobau reached into his pockets brought out something that made Naruto's stomache drop. A pack of cigarettes.

"Throw a lighter!" Sobau called over to one of his friends. Someone from the group threw a lighter and Sobau caught it easily. He held out a cigarette for Naruto. "N-No thanks." Naruto stuttered. "A-actually, I forgit I have a doctors appointment...cant be late dattebayo!" His palms slightly sweaty; the situation kind of made him nervous. It wasnt really that horrible, it was highschool, but it wasn't something he was comfortable with and he didn't want things to unexpectedly go horribly wrong.

"Wait.." Sobau breathed. His brows suddenly furrowed in thought. He handed the lighter and cigarettes back to the closest person to him. He narrowed his eyes. "You're gonna snitch, aint you?!' He bared him teeth and Naruto bit his cheek. _'Shit..'_

Sobau poked Naruto's chest and got in his face. "You are?!" Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I'm not a snitch!" Naruto said with as much as an easy-going laugh as he could muster. He scratched his head nervously. Sobau didn't buy it and his little crowd of buddies started to snicker with rude comments about how dead Naruto was going to be. Naruto just turned around and started to walk away.

"C'mere bastard!"

In less than a second, Sobau was laying on his back on the hard ground with Naruto hanging over him, his fist still where it was after he punched the black-haired teen.

"Don't…don't you ever call me that again." Naruto breathed. He was gasping for air like he had run miles, and his eyes were wide.

"Wanna go?!" Sobau yelled. He spat out some blood. "I can take more than one hit,_ bastard_."

Naruto, still on the older teen, threw his back on the ground and started to viciously punch Sobau and his knuckles started to bleed.

_'STOP!'_ Naruto heard a voice in his head tell him. He ignored it.

Sobau started to whimper, and his bad attitude was replaced by pleas to stop.

_'You need to stop now!'_

"Damn it man, youre gonna kill him!" One of guy apart of Sobau's group yelled. Naruto kept on punching the older teen, and his face was torn up and covered with blood and his tears turned red.

_'Naruto...no. stop.'_

Naruto couldn't tell, everything to him was so silent, but really he was screaming loud things and every word that popped into his head, most of the time he didn't even think. He felt himself being pulled off by someone and he started punching and hitting them, and eventually he felt people hit him back. He didn't know how many he took down or if he took dow any, but he was starting ti get beat up himself. There was warmth, liquid warmth trailing down his face and he quickly wiped his sleeve across his face.

"Guys, lets just get outta here!" Someone yelled above all the shouts and grunts. Naruto felt fewer hits and less people to hit, and Sobau's group ran away.

He was breathing heavily and he felt light-headed. His nose was bleeding and his mouth tasted mettalic and he sat down on the floor.

"What the hell…?" he asked himself. "What the hell?...what...?"

A single word drove him over the wall...a single word caused him to snap and pummel a group without giving it a though. Hell...he couldve killed someone... Naruto suddenly felt very afraid...of himself and let out a small whimper. He buried his face in his hands and let out a noise of frustration.

_What..._

Sobau had nerve though... he called him a bastard..

_Did..._

Normally people wouldn't really take that insult as seriously as Naruto did, but...at least he had a reason... it was because...

_I..._

Bastard...the word was cold, horrible, hurtful...and...it was...the truth...Naruto...really was...a bastard.. he...never knew his own...father...not even his mother...because...

_Do wrong?_

They were dead.

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**A/N OMMMMGGGGG THIS WAS A PAIN IN THE ASSSSSS! This took me forever to edit and check over, and I was about to put it aside again like I had yesterday, but then (dramatic pause) I thought about my reviewers, favoriters, and followers, and I told myself... I wouldn't let it end like this! So yeah, I finally updated. Sorry for taking so long, but this chapter is a whopping EIGHT THOUSAND WORDS MOTHA EFFER! Yup, I am very happy with the amount of words. By the way, sorry for making Naruto's ass get handed to him, but it just needed to happen guys, it needed to happen..and the reason with be for Neji! yup, you gys will find out later.**

**Anyone else impatient for the next manga chapter?! I know I am!1 I just want the Kage back or at least have Sakura act bad ass again or some epic Madara and Hashirama! Or maybe Hinata bitch-slapping n, yeh that would be nice... I LOVE REVIEWS FVORITE AND FLLOWS SO PLEASE DO THAT!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N and here it is folks! Highschool In Hell chapter eight. This is a pretty important and dramatic chapter, but because of that I'm very unsure of this chapter. I mean, I really don't want to rush everything, but I wanna get this part over with cause it'll lead to the main part in this Fic. Hahaha you guys will understand soon enough. I just want a little more bond time with slight action so you guys can get used to how characters act and stuff, I don't wanna rush things but I dont' wanna be slow. Sorry if Neji is a real jerk this chapter! He's still in his all about destiny cause his life sucks state. Someone also asked if there was going to be Akatsuki! Yes! There will be Akatsuki , and LOTS of Itachi love! Hehe. Hope you enjoy and On with the story!**

* * *

"Naruto?" Sasuke asked as soon as he sat down on the same table as they all had yesterday with his tray full of food. He had his usual bored look on his face and monotone voice, but a tilt of his head showed the blonde that the Uchiha was curious about something.

"Yeah?" The blonde answered with his mouth full of meat from his hot wings. His mouth was burning, begging him to stop eating for a chance to cool off, but it tasted so good! He was afraid drinking something would wash away the delicious taste along with the spiciness.

"What the hell happened to your face?"

Naruto, turning as red as a tomato, looked away from Sasuke's prying face and continued to eat his food at a faster pace so he wouldn't be forced to answer Sasuke's question. The Uchiha was staring at Naruto's face intently, probably looking at all of his bruises. When Sobau and his cronies had totally kicked Naruto's ass, the blonde completely forgot about his already broken nose. Now, after the fight, Naruto's nose hurt more than anything and probably still had blood in it. He really should've cleaned up his face better. He had a few bruises and a swollen lip too; Sobau packed a good punch. He hoped he wouldn't meet up with Shizune anytime soon or she would have his head.

"I...fell." Naruto finally settled on saying after a pause in thought.

"What?" Sasuke asked.

"I...ran into a wall!"

Sasuke gave him a skeptic look and turned his head toward everyone else sitting at the table who were caught up in their own little conversations. "I bet no one in this group would belive that." Sasuke said slowly, swallowing a bite from his sandwich. "So just tell me the truth unless you want everyone else pestering you for answers." Naruto sighed in defeat.

"I got my butt kicked after school yesterday by this guy named Sobau." He mumbled, almost to where Sasuke couldn't hear. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "What for?"

"He thought I was gonna snitch on him for having cigs." Sasuke closed his eyes and put down his sandwich before resting his head on his hand. "And he beat you up for that?"

"Yeah, but my nose was mostly Gaara." Naruto said. "He kinda whacked a wooden sword on my nose." Sasuke tilted his head with a confused look. "Do you need...help?" He asked.

Naruto just realized how stupid it was to point out Gaara broke his nose right after he explained why Sobou and his group beat him up. Really, it wasnt Naruto's own fault he wasngetting beat up so damn much, it was just that he was always at the wrong place at the wrong time, but Sasuke was probably thinking he had some sort of bully issues.

"Well, that...sucks." Sasuke concluded lamely. It's not like there was much else to say about the matter really. Naruto rolled his eyes. "No way! Thanks Captain Obvious."

"Well maybe we can see them again after school today." Sasuke said with a shrug, ignoring Naruto's sarcastic comment, and poked at his food, not quite hungry anymore.

Naruto's eyes bulged. "Are you crazy?!" He squeaked. "Why would you want to go to them?" "Are you really going to just let them go like that?" Sasuke asked. "Just ask us," he motioned to everyone at the table, "to come with you, and our group can beat up Sobou's."

"Dude, this is my own problem." Naruto snorted. "Let _me_ deal with it." When Naruto looked back at Sasuke who was no longer facing the blonde, the whole group was staring at him, Ino, Ten-Ten and Sakura cracking their knuckles menacingly, Hinata looking worried, Sasuke smug, and Shikamaru and Neji as bored as ever.

"So where do we meet up with these guys?" Sakura growled. She was being almost...protective. And so was everyone else. Naruto, realizing that trying to convince them to not fight Sobau would be stupid since they refused to take no for an answer, grinned at them brightly with a sheepish neck rub. Geez, he was getting so much attention.

"I'll show you right after school."

**|_•°_•°_•°_•°_|**

Lunch was great for Naruto; not only did the delicious food fill his stomach 'till it felt like it was going to burst, but it really felt nice to know that he had people always having his back, though he was slightly upset because he just wanted to put everything that had happened yesterday behind him, and later, forgotten. It would cause everyone much less trouble. It was stupid to think that though; already people he didn't even know were talking behind his back because of his bruised and battered face.

The gossip and drama of highschool.

Gym with Gai-sensei wasnt as fun today as yesterday and the day before in Naruto's opinion. Like the first day of school, yesterday they all played volleyball again, and the girls were able to go against himself, Sasuke, Neji, and a barely participating Shikamaru, but this time, the boys' team won, surprisingly enough. Today though, they just ran laps and did sit ups, literally the whole time not counting the ten minute break and dress out times. Definitely not enjoyable, except for the laugh he got out of Ten-Ten pestering Neji. She challenged him for just about everything, the laps, the sit-ups, and even who could get dressed faster! It wasnt really her being that competitive though; truly she knew Neji was going to deny her, so she just wanted to bite back and question why.

Naruto wondered why she wanted him to notice her so much. Maybe it was because he just didn't acknowledge her at all, or maybe because she really took his sexist comments seriously.

After that, in the last class of the day, Naruto coincidentally met up with Hinata in the halls because she forgot her science books (which he honestly doubted would ever be used in a class like Anko's since Hinata had her for science too) in her locker so Naruto skipped his class with Iruka-sensei to accompany her. It was fun talking to Hinata. Sure, she was pretty shy, but that made her a great listener. Not a lot of people liked to listen to him to be be honest. It was totally worth the trouble he got in with Iruka. Poor Hinata must've been pretty late too, but even Anko was going to cut someone so sweet like her some slack. Right?

On the other hand, Iruka-sensei seemed to not like him. At all. Naruto was always the first one he picked on or scolded the harshest and seemed to be more strict to just Naruto and easy-going with everyone else. So Naruto just fought back in his own way, causing as much havoc as he could in his class, giving Iruka the hardest time teaching as possible. It was only one class he was really that bad in, but already people were labelling him the troublemaker of the school.

It was weird, but nice. It felt nice. Normal.

**…|°•°•°•°•°•°|…**

Sakura and Sasuke were planning. They could at least agree on one thing for now, and it was that they were one hundred percent serious about beating up this Sobau guy that made people suggest Naruto wear a Friday the 13th hockey mask to hide his face. Both Sakura and Sasuke knew that this guy was going to regret it, but they didn't have to beat them that bad, but they just had to do something that would make them back off of their buddies for good. going to jail before highschool wasn't really on their list of things to do anytime soon.

Sasuke and Sakura were both very protective, that was one thing they had in common. Sasuke was that way because he lost everything once, and he wouldn't alow that to happen again, even if it would kill him. Sakura's reason wasn't as dramatic, but it was simply because it was in her nature. That's the way she was and always has been.

This was probably the first time this year her and Sasuke were actually working on something together for five minutes straight with no arguing what-so-ever.

"So after school?" Sakura whispered with determination in her eyes. "What happens if they're not there? And wont we miss the bus?"

"Sakura you might wanna start texting." Sasuke looked over to the front of the room almost nervously. "Anko-sensei is looking our way..." Surely enough, poor Sasuke had a stick of chalk, their teachers favorite weapon, violently thrown at his head.

Sakura sweat-dropped and whipped her phone out of her back pocket. She bit her lip...should she ask if he was okay? That hollow thud from the chalk hitting him in the head looked like it had to hurt. It would be the nice thing to do, but he was Sasuke. She whipped out her phone.

**Pinky: U ok?** She finally decided on texting. Sasuke looked at her and glared when his phone buzzed and he read the message.

**Uchiha: im fine. Anyway as for the bus issue i can just drive every1 like last time. If theyre not there then...** he left it at that.

**Pinky: sounds good to me! Anyway i wonder where Hinata is?**

**Uchiha: i dont know**

Sasuke closed and turned off his phone, ending their rather short, but less life-threatening, conversation, and Sakura looked at him with a fierce glare. "I was gonna text back, jerk!" She hissed quietly enough so Anko wouldn't hear. Sasuke shrugged and pulled out his notebook and Sakura rolled her eyes, expecting him to start passing notes now instead of text. It was weird; they were right next to each other. But she was wrong; Sasuke had different plans. He was doodling.

"Eh?" Sakura exclaimed with a surprised look. "You're _drawing_?"

"What can I say?" Sasuke shrugged. "I like to draw."

"I thought you were going to start passing notes." She pouted.

"Like I said: I like to draw. More than passing notes to you." Sasuke said with a hidden smirk. It worked like a charm and the old, arguing Sakura was back.

"Teme!" Sakura whisper/shouted with flaming eyes. Sasuke arched a brow. "Teme?" He said thoughtfully. "I thought only Naruto calls me that." Sakura punched him in the shoulder. "It doesn't matter, jerk! That was mean!" She pouted.

Sasuke actually pat her back which made Sakura widen her eyes, only to narrow them in a deadly glare again when he sarcastically said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt poor, sensitive Sakura's feelings."

"ANKO-SENSEI! SASUKE IS TOUCHING ME SO THAT I FEEL SEXUALLY HARASSED!" Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs. Sasuke's haughty eyes snapped open almost unrealistically wide, and he snatched his hand back and nearly fell off his chair with the force of how fast he pulled back his hand from the pinkette's shoulders. His eyes were still wide and his mouth was slightly open. It was Sakura's turn to look smug.

Anko, however, was dying of laughter on another poor student's desk. She waslaying down on the desk with her head and legs hanging off the edges and she was clutching her stomach in fits of laughter and the class joined in with obnoxious snickers and giggles. Of course, there were also the furious, jealous fangirls who would die to be harassed by Uchiha Sasuke. Though, it wasn't quite harassment if they liked it...

"U-Uchiha!" Anko managed to squeak between laughs. "You _d-dirty_ boy!" She cackled madly. Poor Sasuke was almost shrinking in his seat, and he seemed more focused on what he was drawing more than ever. Sakura was giggling but tried to keep it at a minimum; she didn't want to hurt his pride too much. Just a little stab.

Sasuke kept on drawing whatever he was drawing, occasionally tilting the page to the left or right and sketching light lines and later on going over them to give them a more solid look. He was trying his hardest to not show any reaction to Sakura's sudden outburst and everyone's laughter. He understood perfectly well; now...she was playing dirty.

Anko didn't send him out of the class to the office or anything, but her comments were just as bad. Sakura poked his shoulder. "Hey," she said. with a strangely serious look; She didn't have to whisper because Anko was still in her fit of giggles. "I'm sorry. I just realized that what sad might've been a little over the top. You ok?"

Sasuke still stared at his notebook so she couldn't see his face, so she couldn't see that he was smiling. She thought he thought that was over the top? Anyway, the class was Anko's, it wasn't like she was going to do anything, and all he needed for his reputation was his looks. He looked up at her with a smirk.

"Wow Haruno, are you actually worried about my _feelings_?" He said with a tilt of his head. Sakura smiled back. "Keep dreaming, _Uchiha."_

Overall, that class was definitely entertaining, and Sasuke and Sakura both learned absolutely nothing in that class. They just talked and texted each other the whole time, bit hey, who says that's a bad thing?

When the bell rang for the end of class, Sasuke was the first one out of the class, before Sakura even though she had the outside seat and he the inside seat next to her, s he just hopped over his desk and out the door.

Sakura, puzzled by his strange behaviour, rolled her eyes and was about to leave, but something on Sasuke's desk caught her eyes. It was his notebook that he was doodling on. She snatched it as soon as she realized what it was and sat back down in her seat despite class already being over.

She opened the book to the first page and gasped at the picture.

It was the most beautiful picture she had ever seen. The name 'Sakura' was written in the middle of the paper in graffiti and bubble letters with the cool looking 'S' that most people wore on chains, and on the left of the page, there was a beautiful flower, cherry blossom no doubt, with some petals floating to the other side of the page. On the right side of the page, was a chibi version of what Sakura guess was herself. It had long flowing hair with the Konoha headband as a head-band like she always

wore it. The chibi version of herself was wearing a cheerleader skirt and a short-sleeved shirt with gloves covering her hands. It was almost exactly like the outfit she wore of the first day of school.

She had one eye closed and her tongue was stuck out childishly, her middle finger sticking up and the other hand behind her back. While admiring Sasuk's artwork, she also noticed something on the other page. It was a note. Oddly enough, for someone who could draw so well, his writing was a bit sloppy.

_Haruno,_

_I bet you like the picture. It has you on it, so of course you's like it. Well go ahead, stare at yourself, but don't feel too special cause I'm making one for everyone. Didnt mean to break your heart, but im already working on one for the rest of the group._

_See you around_

_Uchiha_

Sakura smiled.

_See you around_

"See you around, Sasuke." She said. She shoved the notebook in her bag, but not before tearing out the page with the picture and the note.

Those, she kept in her pocket.

* * *

"Hey, Neji!" Ten-Ten chirped happily. She caught him just as he was about to walk out of the school. "I'm really surprised that you're not helping out with Naruto." Ten-Ten said with sadness evident in her eyes. she had brought up Naruto's issue again iwth his in gym and asked if he was going to help too. He rudely declined. "Isn't he your friend?"

Neji kept on walking and didn't look at the brunette. "It's his problem, he got himself into it. He needs to deal with it without dragging others into his mess."

"Neji!" Ten-Ten gasped furiously. She stopped walking and grabbed Neji's arm so he didn't walk away. He wrenched his arm out of her grasp, but surprisingly didn't continue to walk.

"How can you say that?! You think he was able to control what happened?! And he wanted everyone out of it, but Sasuke just brought it up!" Neji finally stopped and looked into her fierce eyes coldly.

"That was his fate. His destiny was to meet up with that group and now it is his destiny to deal with it. Sasuke brought it up, and everyone merely volunteered, but I didn't because, like I said, I have things that are more important."

"More important?!" Ten-Ten shouted angrily, roughly poking her finger to his chest. "You even admitted we were friends yesterday! Friends are there for each other, aren't they?"

"Reality versus expectations, Ten-Ten. Look at the real world. In reality, just because Naruto is my friend, does not make me obliged to help him with something he got himself into."

Ten-Ten slapped Neji. _Hard._ His face snapped to the side and her hand still hung in the air. Tears pricked her eyes.

"So you can feel obliged to follow my rules when you're in my house, but when it comes to Naruto being your friend, you don't feel the obligation to help him when he's in need?" She whispered.

"No." Neji said, his head still to the side.

"Youre a jerk." She said shaking her head in disbelief. "I really do hope you know that." She took a step back slowly, just waiting, almost _wanting_ him to react or say _something,_ but he just remained motionless. She finally turned around and left, still shaking her head in disappointment.

She had to find the others at the meeting place they decided on; she hoped she wasnt too late. She didn't want everyone waiting on her. What was she going to say about Neji? The truth, right? There wasn't any need to cover for someone as heartless as him.

Why had she gotten so upset when Neji said those things? Sure, they were the worst things anyone could say both as a friend and as a person, but normally she wouldn't have been so affected by it. Neji and her weren't even that close like she was with Ino, Sakura, and Hinata she really shouldnt have taken those words the way she did.

_But..._

Neji was better than that. She knew that fact for sure. Every word that came out of his mouth was a lie, she just knew it. Maybe the things he said sometimes were only to convince himself. She didn't know why, but she had this feeling in her gut that Neji didn't believe what his own mouth was saying. That he truly wasnt like that. Maybe it was that way. Or maybe that's just what she wanted.

"Ten-Ten!" Ino waved with a devilish grin. Everyone _was_ waiting for her after all. They were all in a corner of the school next to where the entrance was, also next to where Naruto crashed into Sobau. "Where's Neji?" Ino asked.

"His dad suddenly had to pick him up for an important appointment!" She blurted out. Everyone seemed to buy it. She didn't know why she was covering for him but she felt like it was the right thing to do. Hinata gave Ten-Ten a look. Obviously she would know if there was any important appointment, she was her cousin! Ten-Ten just gave her a 'Ill explain it to you later' look that the she hoped Hinata would understand. Thank god she did and Hinata gave her a small smile in understanding.

"Are you sure you guys want to do this?" Naruto asked uncertainly. "If things go for the worst, It'll be all my fault."

"Baka." Sakura said, rolling her eyes. "This is what friends are for. Sticking up for each other." Those words sent a pang through Ten-Ten's heart.

_'Reality versus expectations.'_

"Hey guys," Sasuke spoke up with a harsh tone. The mood suddenly turned serious. "Look who decided on showing up."

Ten-Ten's head whipped around to look at where Sasuke's eyes were pointed at. Surely enough Sobau was there, slightly shocked at seeing people at his little smoking corner. He didn't look too happy about that fact.

"Well looky 'ere." Sobau said. He squinted his eyes at Naruto. "It's that little _bastard_ we came across yesterday." Naruto closed his eyes, taking deeper breaths and clenched his fists. Sasuke caught this in the corner of his eye.

"Did ya come back for more? Not many like my beatings, if they get back from one, but I'll be happy to offer another." He said, spitting on the ground. His group, who were all standing behind him, started to smirk and crack their knuckles and try to seem menacing.

"You have only ten?' Sasuke asked, almost sounding disappointed. "Well you're going to need more than that."

Ten-Ten took a step forward. "You messed with our friend." She said, motioning over to Naruto. "Now is the time when it comes back to bite you in the ass. _Hard_."

Sobau scratched his head in confusion. "Huh? But aint you a girl?" He said almost unsurely. Ten-Ten hated this guy even more. "Say something like that again and I'll turn you into one!" Naruto shouted fiercely, taking Anko-sensei's words.

"Hey! Did you guys see that!?" Ino gasped dramatically. Ten-Ten face-palmed. 'Were about to fight, Ino!' She thought. 'Really?!' Sobau and his group and even their own group tried to look at what Ino was making a fuss over, and so fast, so so very fast, Ino took the chance and slapped Sobau when he wasnt expecting it.

"Wow..." Naruto breathed in awe. "Ino really ca be a badass!" His fear for her bitch-slaps seemed to triple. Even Sasuke was slightly slack-jawed. Sobau was astonished and his group gaped when Ino simply pit a hand on her hip and started checking out her nails.

"Man," she sighed. "I really hope this doesnt mess up my polish. Its hard work getting it to look the was it does." Some guys wolf-whistled and Sobau's face wasnt just red because of the slap.

Still distracted, Sasuke and Ten-Ten took this chance and pounced. Sakura roundhouse kicked one guy who had the wise idea to try and go for the weaker one in the group, Hinata, and Sakura clicked her tongue disapprovingly when he fell onto the ground with the force of her kick.

"What a pity." She said with distaste. She walked back into the fight once more, standing next to Ino to back the blonde up.

"I cant believe it!" Ino said in-between her punches. Her hits weren't necissarily good ones, but at least they were better than her opponents. She still added her slaps here and there that looked definitely more painful than her small punches.

"What?" Sakura asked. "That you're actually in a fist fight for the first time in years?"

"Nah," Ino somehow managed to shake her head, barely avoiding a punch to her stomach. "It's that Shikamaru is actually fighting too! Well..._somewhat."_

Shikamaru was sitting in a corner, sitting, but he still managed to fight in a way. He was floor boxing, only using his legs, and even though it looked, sounded, and probably really was difficult, he looked like he was doing pretty damn good. Sakura rolled her eyes. It seemed so like him; the fighting syle that is.

"I should probably run over to save him the trouble." Sakura yelled over the thuds of bodies, punches, and groans. She punched the guy she was fighting in the nose, making his vision blurry due to his watery eyes, and she took the chance to grab his head and slam it into her knee. She made sure it was only enough so that it would just knock him out, not any horrible life-threatening damage. As long as he didn't hear a crunch or anything.

She grabbed the guy Shikamaru was "fighting" with and grabbed his hand, twisting it around his back before kneeing him in his crown jewels. Shikamaru winced.

"Well that looked painful." He said. "Thanks for taking that guy out for me. It's such a drag to fight when sitting down." Sakura chuckled and shook her head. What a guy.

"I think that's it." Sakura said,panting for breath and, looking around. Sobau's cronies were all lying in the floor, moaning and groaning in pain. Some of them, like the one Sakura had kneed in the crown jewels, werent visibly bleeding anywhere, and so the pinkette guessed she wasn't the only one to do what she did to that guy she took from Shikamaru.

Sobau himself was lying down clutching his nose and panting with his knees drawn up to his chest. His nose was probably broken.

"D-Damn." He said. "I won't bother you no more, I swear it" he said with a voice laced with pain. Sasuke stepped on him on the way out of the fighting scene and Naruto did the same. The girls were nice enough to step over.

"You better not." Ten-Ten hissed at him, and she too followed the others and left.

**|:':':':',:,:,:,:|**

"Thanks for driving us home, Sasuke!" Everyone in the car chorused like kids thanking their parents for taking them somewhere nice. Hinata was the first to go, followed by Ten-Ten and then Ino. Shikamaru was let off at the same place as Ino since they both lived pretty close to each other.

"So you just take left 'round here, and then you'll see a blue Honda on the left side. That's my mom's car." Sakura directed from the passenger seat.

"But before I go..." she reached in her red bag and fished around for something, occasionally picking out books only to shake her head and shove it back in the bag. "A ha!" She said in triumph. She pulled out Sasuke's notebook.

"I believe you left this in class, Uchiha." She said with a wink. She left the car before he could even open his mouth to reply.

"What was that?!" Naruto asked with a strange look.

Sasuke didn't reply.

Naruto directed Sasuke to his house, and it seemed like they were drving in circles for hours untill they found a small clump of apartment complexes. Sasuke thought Naruto got lost again until the loud-mouth blonde held up his hands, signaling for him to stop.

"This is my house." He said. Sasuke looked confused. "You live...here?" He asked quietly, taking another look at the small apartments. They looked like they could barely fit more than two people from the outside at least. The paint and wood of the house were chipped and faded and it looked disgusting to live in with overgrown ivy crawling up the walls.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked with raised brows. Naruto nodded and looked away. "This is what I call home." The blonde said in a happy voice. It was fake. "My home."

"Naruto there's something I have to ask you." Sasuke said, putting the car in park. He faced the blonde. "How did the fight with Sobau really start? I know he must've done something to make you pissed or you wouldn't have been in that fight. You would have probably tried talking them out of it."

Naruto winced. "He called me a...name."

"And you just cracked because of that?"

"Look, Sasuke, you don't understand!" Naruto murmured. He turned to pen the door, but Sasuke locked it.

"Well it's not like you're giving mea chance to." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. "How come whatever they called you made you go over the edge?"

"Sasuke...don't you have parents?" Naruto asked out of the blue. His eyes looked almost pleading to know his answer. Sasuke's eyes widened. "No." He said, looking at the floor.

"Then you should understand." Naruto said.

"Wait..." comprehension dawned on Sasuke. "So you don't have...so they called you a-" "Dont say it!" Naruto interrupted with his hands leaving around frantically.

"I'm sorry." Sasuke said sincerely. He hated it when people always said their apologies when they had no idea how it really hurted, but when someone who understood what pain you were going through, that 'im sorry' seemed to make everything better. Hopefully Naruto felt the same way.

He did and his blue eyes went soft. "Thanks...Sasuke...you jerk." He left the car. Well the door was still locked, but then Sasuke rolled his eyes and unlocked it and the blonde left for real. "I know how you feel." Naruto murmured. Sasuke didn't hear it.

The drive to his own house was quiet, he wasn't in the mood to turn on the radio, but the silence was a comfortable one. It was hard to find his way back, and he got lost a couple of times, still not that familiar with the streets of Konoha around where Naruto lived, but he managed to coget back to familiar roads and come across the extravagant Uchiha compound.

It wasn't just one large house, it was actually a series of houses. It used to house the whole Uchiha clan in just one nice neighborhood; it was so nice because most of the Uchiha worked as police, a well paying occupation. Since his father used to be the head, of course his own house was the largest. But the Uchiha compound was now empty. All the Uchiha's became extinct after this one man simply didn't like the way the Uchiha Police Co worked, and annihilated everyone with the blood of the Uchiha. Sasuke and his brother, Itachi, were the only ones who had survived, for they had sneaked out when the clan held an important meeting together.

It was devastating; walking into the compound just to see dead bodies littered all over the place. The smell was horrible and Itachi had taken little Sasuke's hand and had dragged him away, but Itachi's watery eyes were the one thing he would never forget.

Surprisingly, the compound hadn't been demolished and stood today as a memorial for the clan and for history itself as one of the largest massacres. Sasuke and Itachi both refused to live anywhere else, so they lived there, in the head house, the biggest one, all alone. They did move to Suna for a while, but when the heads of Konoha threatened to demolish the compound because of the lack of use, the two Uchihas quickly moved back.

Sasuke shook his head. _'Bad thoughts.'_

He got out of his car after parking it in the garage and opened his door, which happened to be unlocked. _'Itachi's home...'_ he thought happily.

He opened the door and the first thing that hit him was the smell of smoke.

"Itachi! Deidara blew up the fricking ramen again!" He heard someone shout.

"Art is an explosion...even if it is a waste of ramen, un."

"A waste of ramen?! You totally lit the Uchiha's toaster on fire!"

Sasukes first thought; a break-in. "Itachi!" Sasuke shouted. Immediately, he heard footsteps come his way.

One of them was a tall teen, with long blond hair half pulled up into a ponytail. He had slanted, blue eyes and light creamy skin and strangely reminded Sasuke of Ino. The second, was another teen who was slightly shorter than the first and had messy red hair with brown eyes. This one reminded Sasuke of Gaara, but Gaara seemed to have much paler skin than the teen in front of the younger Uchiha.

"Who are you two?" Sasuke demanded to know with a glare. The redhead rolled his eyes. "Yep he's Itachi's brother alright."

"I'm Deidara!" The blonde one with a grin and a friendly wave. "And this here is Sasori-danna. Were both friends of Itachi, un!"

Sasuke stared at Deidara's hand with an odd look and the blonde took notice. He held the up for Sasuke to see fully. "Theyre just tattoos, un." He said. "Wicked, yeah?" They were tattoos of mouths with tongues hanging out on each of Deidara's hands, something Sasuke had never seen on anyone before. It was an odd choice.

Sasori shook his head then turned back to a silent Sasuke. "Hey, do you mind being the one to break the news of Itachi's toaster's sudden disappearance?" He said exasperatedly. "Just mention Dei's art and he'll understand."

"Are you two leaving for good?" Sasuke finally spoke up with a weird expression. They both shook their heads. "Nope." Deidara sheepishly said. "Were just buying Itachi a new toaster, un."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Ok, ok yes I ended the chapter there... i love Akatsuki too, but i really really, wanted to get that chapter done and OVER WITH! Lazy writer to shame. Dont worry there will be PLENTY more of them in later chappies! Now on to happier things! Thanks to my favorites, followers, and reviewers! I was SCREAMING in happiness when I got those two reviews (thanks WaitForItDotDotDot and ShiGurl) and the follows and favorites! And as for the ramen thing, i actually ALMOST caught my ramen on fire once. was all black and stuff and I felt so bad and stupid. I make ramen all the time but this ONE FRICKIN TIME I forgot to put in the water...no comment...Back to depressing things, this chapter is going to be the important one that im going to hope im not bringing in to early T.T but it's so important so so so VERY IMPORTANT and is the thing that gets this story going! Im so nervous about this...i dont wanna mess it up...and sorry if the beginning of the chapter is a bit dull! Just a little fillers, ya know? well, on with the story and hope you enjoy! Please leave me reviews to smile about! By the way, WaitForItDotDotDot mentioned the song 'Youre Gonna Go Far Kid' that I used last chapter lol yeah I love that song xP**

Sasuke walked up the stairs slowly, not wanting to go into the kitchen in fear of how bad the toaster was. He sighed in relief, remembering he wasnt the one who was going to have to buy a new one; they were pretty expensive and the one he had was pretty nice and a Christmas present. Hopefully the counter didn't get burnt too or that Sasori and Deidara were going to have hell...Sasuke was still wondering if he had recently lost his sanity after meeting with those weird strangers in the hall. It seemed impossible Itachi could be friends with people like that! It was just so unlike him in every way. either that, or Sasuke didn't know his older brother nearly as well as he had thought. That was going to be the first question he was going to ask his older brother; who Sasori and Deidara were.

He walked down the hall and opened a door on his right, his own room, and simply threw his school bag on to his bed before closing the door again and marching over to where he hoped his brother was.

"Itachi?" He called out. "Itachi?"

"Over here," a muffled voice said. Sasuke walked over to the office room, where Itachi usually was doing homework, and opened the door. "Who the hell were those people!?" Sasuke asked straightforwardly, totally forgetting to mention the toaster.

Itachi, who was hunched over the desk with papers in neat piles, held his pencil in his hand and put it down. He shook his head and gave a small smile. "Those were my friends Sasuke." He said in an amused tone. "Dont you have any of your own?"

"Yeah, but those people are..." Sasuke trailed off, not finding the right words to describe the people he wished he never knew existed. They killed his expensive toaster by burning ramen. How do you light ramen on fire. Idiot probably forgot to put in the water.

"Different?" Itachi supplied. "Different." Sasuke agreed. "Well," Itachi smirked. "If you thought so about those two then I really can't wait untill you meet the rest."

Sasuke sweatdropped. 'There are more?'

"Theyre coming over today, Sasuke."

Sasuke paled.

"Would you enjoy staying to meet them all?"

"You know what?" Sasuke started, inching out the door slowly. "I just remembered that I have to meet up with some people today. Bye Nii-san!" Sasuke said, walking out the door and slamming it shut behind him. Itachi silently chuckled before returning to his homework. 'That got rid of him for now.' He thought. He was now able to finish his piles of homework without any distractions.

Sasuke, grabbing his keys from his room, had just wanted an excuse to leave the house. Meeting Deidara and Sasori was awkward enough, especially having to deal with the blonde ones weird tattoos and speech issue, and if Sasuke had an opportunity to skip out meeting the other ones than he would take it, like now. He was used to normal people, but then came Naruto and the others and now Deidara and Sasori. He didn't want anymore..

But he honestly had nowhere he needed to be at the moment. School was over and it wasnt like he was going to simply invite himself over to Naruto's house. shikamaru and Neji were out of the question along with the girls.

"McDonalds is sounding really good right now." He sighed, leaving the house he had literally just entered.

Π•°Π•°Π•°Π•°Π

Sakura was bored. It was one of those days when she had to grudgingly admit that she'd rather be at school than home alone. Beating up Sobau's group had actually been fun and texting in Kakashi-sensei's had been fun and talking at lunch had been fun and sneakily talking with Sasuke was...entertaining.

She pulled out the picture of the Chibi of herself and Sasuke's note from her pocket and stared at it for a bit. She didn't know what to do with it; if she kept on jamming it in her pockets, it would eventually get really crumpled or it might rip. And, to be honest, she didn't want to leve it on her desk or something because, chances are, she was going to lose it. Sakura wasnt the very best at keeping track of things.

Finally deciding on what to do, she got up from her lazy position on her bed and went to rummage in her drawers for her clear tape. She snatched it from the drawer and looked around the room for a good spot to put the picture.

Right around her window frame were other papers she had decided to tape to the wall. Some were important reminders to herself, others phone numbers from friends that she didn't want to forget, and most of them were pictures with Ino, Ten-Ten and Hinata. She really needed a scrap-book. Ironically

enough, there was a single space left and Sakura took the tape and put the picture right in the empty space with Sasuke's note underneath it.

Perfect.

Now that that was out of the way, again, she was clueless with what to do next. She plopped back on to her bed with a loud groan ad picked up her phone calling the only number she knew by heart.

"Piiiiiiiiiig!" She wailed loudly into the phone. "I. Am. Bored."

"Then do something forehead." Ino said.

"But that's the hard part." She pouted. "I dunno what to do."

Ino snickered on the other end of the phone. "Hehe...what to do."

"Your so dirty minded." Sakura shook her head. "Cant I come over or something?"

"Sure, but whatever guy you're going to do can't come!"

Sakura hung up, silencing Ino's obnoxious laughter.

Ino's house was surprisingly close by, surprisingly because Sakura's was an extremely small one and Ino's wasbasicallu considered a million dollar mansion. It was two-floored with a basement and attic with a huge mount of land that could barely be called a backyard. Back when Ino and Sakura had first met in seventh grade, Ino and her had went t explore in the forest behind the blondes house. Later on, with Inoichi's permission (Ino's father) they were allowed to make a tree house. a year later, they both decided to make another, and now there were four tree houses that connected to each other. They were painted on the inside and had food and drinks, a mini fridge that didn't need to be plugged in, and other cool stuff they decided to put in there. Even now it was still fun to hang out in and gossip about the latest dramas in life.

The walk was only about ten minutes, and soon enough Sakura found herself ringing the Yamanaka doorbell on their majestic doorstep. Inoichi was the one who answered the door to Sakura's surprise since she expected Ino to be the one to greet her.

"Hi Inoichi-san!" Sakura said with a bright smile. "Is Ino here?"

"Yeah, in her room as always." He said. He scratched his ear and his face went bright red. "But...erm...you might want to knock...I uh...accideantally walked in on her...changing."

Saura giggled. "Dont take it to hard, Inoichi-san, happens to every father more than once!" She said, patting his shoulder with a smile. Sakura and Inoichi were pretty open to each other. That was part of the reason Inoichi was so generous, paying a large part of her school fees for KHS. He was like her second father if not like her first.

He nodded with an appreciative smile and stepped back from the doorway to let her in. "I'm making some dinner if you want to stay." He offered politely.

"Yeah that would be nice!" She walked up the stairs to Ino's room, reminding herself every two steps to knock so she wouldn't forget.

Knock

Knock

"Dad stop trying to apologize! I already said its ok!" Sakura heard Ino yell from the other side of the door.

"It's not your dad, pig!" Sakura shouted to the door.

"Oh.."

"Well, can I come in?!" She asked impatiently.

"No!"

Sakura opened the door, hoping she was changed. If Inoichi walked in on her before Sakura got here then the blonde should definitely be changed by now. She didn't take that long.

"I told you not to come in!" Ino screeched, throwing a pillow at Sakura. She was, thankfully, fully clothed.

"And?" Sakura asked with a blank look. Ino pouted. "So what did you come over for again?" She asked.

"Cause I was bored. And I'm staying over for dinner."

"Oh." Ino said. "Wanna paint nails?" She asked with hopeful eyes. "I chipped mine in the fight today. I'm thinking I want french nails..."

Sakura rolled her eyes, but thought about it, inspecting her own paintless and chewed up nails. They could have a little spa day; wouldn't hurt anyone. Ino saw Sakura's thoughtful face and was already rummaging through her make-up box for nail polish, remover, and a filer before the pinkette could even open her mouth to answer.

"Whatcha want your color to be?" Ino asked after patting the spot beside her on the bed motioning for Sakura to sit. "I'll take a green."

Ino whipped out her trust nail filer and began the grueling task of evening out Sakura's nails while starting conversation.

"So hows your mom?" She asked, unusually serious. "I know its only been a few days, but it must be hard on her."

"Yeah.." Sakura looked down. "She hasn't been doing so hot. Shes either staring at the TV that most of the times isn't even turned on, or locked up in her room. I don't get why it's that bad though; I don't mean to be an ass, but her and Dad weren't really that close."

Ino wrinkled her nose. "I guess." She said. "But she just needs someone to be there Sakura. Thats you!"

"Since when are you all into deep stuff like this?"

"Well it is pretty serious!" Ino said defensively. "I mean, you really should be pretty affected too but you see fine to me...I find that...weird."

This was the uncomfortable part. Sakura would've shrugged if Ino weren't doing her nails, but instead she was forced to answer with words. "I don't really know.." she said uncomfortably. "He wasnt really ever there for me."

"So you don't miss him?" Ino asked incredulously.

"Well...just..no...not really." Sakura struggled to find the right words.

"Oh..." Ino said. She suddenly changed the subject. "Uhm...so are you and Sasuke going out yet?" Sakura snatched back her hands suddenly and rolled off the bed. "WHAT?! NO! AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY YET!?" She screamed, suddenly flustered. Ino giggled. "I get it, I get it, you guys want it private." She waved off. "Those secret romances are always touching!" Sakura turned as red as a tomato, Sasuke's favorite food...

"Well what about you and Shikamaru?!" Sakura retorted, still red. To her dismay, Ino didn't flip out like the pinkette had expected and hoped. "I dunno if I really would want to date him.." Ino said, her confidence surprisingly gone. "It would be weird since we've been friends longer than I've known you Sakura. Like, since diapers. Dating my best guy-friend would be weird. And anyways, my relationships don't last long."

"So youre afraid that if you and Shikamaru would go out, then break up, that it would ruin your friendship?" Sakura summed up. She let Ino go back to painting her nails.

"Yeah...I guess that's part of it." She said with a sigh. "Hinata and Naruto are so lucky!" She said envoiusly. Sakura giggled. "Yeah, they just seem to...click!"

"Agreed!" Ino said with a happy grin despite her current romance predicament. "Hinata is so obvious with it! Gosh I can't believe Naruto it really that dense if he hasn't at least guessed it by now!"

"Sneaking off when we were in the pool." Sakura said mischievously. Ino giggled. "Oh my gosh...maybe Ten-Ten really was right when she accused Hinata of being dirty-minded!"

"Arent we all!" They both giggled at the image of Hinata fainting if she were listening to their conversation. Ino whipped out the polish after she finished filing all of Sakura's nails.

"She a doll, though! Totally makes up for our lack of manners!" Ino said truthfully. "I'm so happy shes our friend!" Sakura suddenly gasped

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Sakura said in excitement. "Did I tell you that Mai finally enrolled at KHS!" Ino's eyes widened. "No way!" She gasped. "That goth chick from middle school?!"

"Shes not goth," sakura defended."just...dark."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Anyway, so she enrolled here? I find that kind of odd."

"Whys that?"

"Well, I guess it's just weird to me that she's suddenly enrolling at KHS for sophomore year when she said her parents wanted her to go to a different highschool for freshmen."

Sakura frowned. "I guess that's pretty weird." She said. "She never talked about it to me, or about her sudden change of schools at all."

"She talk to you much?" Ino asked curiously. "Only in Asuma-sensei's." Sakura shrugged. "Thats the only class I have with her."

"Shes a mysterious one." Ino said. "But on a completely different subject, your nails are done!" She said proudly. Sakura inspected them, holding her nails close to her narrowed eyes. "Wow, Ino, you did pretty good!" She praised. Ino smiled proudly before sticking her hands in Sakura's face.

"My turn!"

|•|°|•|°|•|°|•|°|•|

The next two days flew by; it was probably because it wasnt as boring as everyone expected the rest of the school week to be, but it went by fast whether that was a good thing or bad.

A lot of strange things happened in those few days; Sakura spent her class time in Kakashi-sensei's talking to only Ino and Ten-Ten since Hinata was often studying (even though there was barely anything to study so early in the school year) before she got taken away by an ever-so obnoxious Naruto. Sasuke was strangely quiet in Kakashi's class, well at least his quietness was strange to Sakura since he talked to her a lot in Anko's, but she didn't bother him at all because he was always so focused on what he was drawing in his notebook Sakura returned to him. It was probably the chibis of everyone else.

Up untill the day of the fight with Sobau, Ten-Ten talked to Neji even though he barely responded; she probably didn't even expect him to. She was really out of character around him, always pestering him and judging every move he made. Ten-Ten usually wasnt so judgemental on a person, but when she was with Neji, she was completely different. The rest of the girls had yet to figire out why, and it was probably going to take a while. After Sobau's well-deserved beat-up, however, Ten-Ten was more distant to him than shes been all week. She never sat beside him anymore in classes or at lunch, wasnt

enthusiastic about challenging the guys in gym (and even Sasuke could see how much she loved to show what he could do in front of Neji) and she didn't even talk to or about him. Again, this was strange behaviour that the girls had yet to find the reason to.

On Thursday, another strange thing happened; Shikamaru was seen walking around in the hall next to a girl. A junior girl at that. One with four ponytails, green eyes, and a name none other than Temari Subaku. Shikamaru was super casual about it, acting like it was an every day thing while Temari walked beside him down the maze of halls of the school. The first time it happened, Sakura, Ten-Ten, Hinata, and Ino had all brushed it off at a one-time thing, then it happened again on Friday and the girls began to get curious.

First off: Temari was a year older than him and had a completely different schedule, making no sense as to why she was walking with the lazy teen in-between classes. Second was that he seemed fine with it, occasionally taking the time to respond to her when she was talking. It was even more the strange that Ino wasnt reacting. Sakura had made it a fact that Ino liked Shikamaru, but when the Shikamaru/Temari thing started, the blonde was completely indifferent. That was surprising in both circumstances that she liked him or if she didn't; she was just a dramatic person and payed close attention to new and unusual stuff like this. Sakura started to reconsider the possibility of Ino liking Shikamaru.

Mai was also weird, she talked to Sakura more, but the things she would talk about were odd subject to tak about. She would ask random and completely off-subject and personal questions before quickly changing into a conversation about Sakura's friends. In Asuma-sensei's, Mai would always sit by Sakura in the back of the room, and if the pinkette would want to sit somewhere less weird than the black-haired teen would make some sort of excuse to make her reluctantly sit in the back. Sakura never remembered Mai being so...clingy.

And, remebering the talk she had with Ino, Saura began to spend more time with her mother after shed get home from school. Her mom was becoming more of herself, slowy but surely, and she came out of her room more often. Sakura had yet to see the day hen she would ge tout of the house again. She had to go back to work; she probably already missed a week of work.

Already things were heading for the dramatic and it was only the beginning of the second week of school. Nothing, however, would have prepared Sakura for what happened after Monday. Monday, the day everyone hated.

Sakura was walking beside an oddly cheerful Mai on the way to her house. This was the first time Mai wanted to walk Sakura home, and the pinkette was slightly shocked. Mai didn't even ride the same bus as her, but today she had with a note from the principal and here they were.

The school day was frustratingly the same as it had been the last Friday and Thursday, complete with the Shikamaru and Temari walking together thing, Ten-Ten avoiding Neji, less Sasuke, and more Mai weirdness.

"Sakura?" Mai asked, waving a hand in front of Sakura's face. "You still there?" She asked with a small chuckle.

"Yeah." Sakura said, blinking a few times, waking up from her jumbled up thoughts. "Yeah, I'm here."

Mai smiled brightly, which was another weird thing. Back in middle school, she was kind of like Sasuke. She didn't smile often for real, and she seemed to abhor laughing, but now she was smiling and being all happy, but to be honest, Sakura didnt see why. There just wasnt anything that seemed to cause this sudden change.

"Well, like I was saying before you zoned out," Mai continued. "Maybe you shouldnt go home." The black-haired teen said. Sakura furrowed her brows. "Why not?"

"Well, I was thinking maybe you can come over to my house." Mai offered. Sakura stared at her with a weird look. "Youre house?" She said incredulously. "I've never been. How far is it?" It was true; this was the first time the black-haired teen had ever even really brought up her house herself.

"Ah, it's a bit far. About ten minutes from the mall." Mai said, scrunching up her nose. "Its gonna be a helluva walk."

Sakura readjusted her bag on her shoulder and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Well, I'm gonna have to go home to drop off my school bag and ask Mom." She said.

"Cant you text her?" Mai said with a frown.

"Yeah, but I'm going to have to drop off my stuff too." Sakura pointed out, lifting up her bag for emphasis. Mai frowned some more. "Well.." she paused. "You can take you bag over, my house is pretty big."

Sakura was about to agree. She was so close to just turning around and following Mai to her house. So close to just leaving. But something told her to just go home real quick and stick with her guns and she listened to that something. Facing Mai, Sakura gave an apologetic smile. "sorry," she said. "But I really have to go home." Mai's face cleared before suddenly turning bright and cheery. "You know what?" She said tapping her foot. "I totally forgot; sorry, no one can come over today. Mall shopping with the parents." She tucked some black strands behind her ear. "Bye Sakura!"

Sakura stared as Mai turned around and walked away, almost in a hurry, and the last thing the pinkette saw before she disappeared around the corner was her putting her hood up and whipping her phone out from her back pocket. She was definitely acting abnormal.

Walking back to her house, which wasnt very far away, she noticed a number of even more strange things. The neighbors all seemed to be outside, and they were whispering something to each other with odd expressions that Sakura couldn't seem to put a name to. When the pinkette walked down the streets, those still on their front porch suddenly stared at her. She felt uncomfortable and uneasy. She walked faster.

The sound of police sirens was the thing that made her break out into a sprint and a omnious feeling overcame her. Something was definitely not right.

She ran faster until she caught sight of her small apartment and she was heavily panting. Police cars were the first thing she saw, there were at least five of them all surrounding her house and officers were everywhere, some of them surrounding the apartment with the yellow tape that Sakura had seen multiple times in crime scene movies.

Forgetting how tired her legs were, she started running again straight for the front door. Haf-way there, people yelled at her to stop, but she ignored them with only the thought of getting inside running through her mind. Eventually, someone had roughly grabbed her wrist and turned her around. "You are not allowed in this area without permission." He told her still holding on to her wrist.

"But this is my house!" Sakura screeched furiously. The officer paused but still didn't let Sakura go. "I'm sorry but you still are not allowed in!" He said with finality. Sakura then did something she forbid herself to do ever since she found out what jail and prison were. She kneed the police officer right in between the legs, snatched her wrist back and yanked open the front door, running in and slamming it behind her. All she heard was the officers shout and a thump as he fell to the ground in pain.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She apologized over and over again to the poor man. He was only doing his job.

She ran into the house and she abruptly stopped in her tracks plugging her nose. There was a horrible, strong odor that made her gag. She kept walking, looking around and only breathing through her mouth. She hid behind a wall when she heard voices, no doubt some more policemen.

"Yeah, whoever did this had good a good aim." One of them said with a strong Texan accent.

"Two bullets went clean through her! One in the head and neck." Another said. Sakura's heart plummeted.

'No...they couldnt...It cant be...not the same person.'

She hesitantly inched closer and the smell became stronger.

"Wonder how her daughter's gonna react."

"I hate dealing with the teens. Always whiny and dramatic. The littler ones I actually pity."

Sakura's eyes narrowed. It all added up perfectly yet it didn't make sense. It what they were saying was true...the only conclusion she came up with was...that her mother...was murdered. It was weird. really feel anything because she didn't believe it. She couldn't ask because she'd no doubt get in trouble, but...she needed to know..

"Is she dead?" Sakura pleaded to know almost desperately. The officers, startled, jumped and faced her with a hand on their handguns that were still in the holster.

"What your business here?" One of them asked.

"This is my house.." Sakura said, stepping out of her hiding spot behind the wall. "What happened?!"

"Youre not supposed to be he-" the other police officer held up to silence the other one. "She has a right to know." He sad seriously. He was obviously not theone who had said the comment about hating teenagers.

Sakura stepped closer in anticipation. "There was a woman here who was shot twice and killed earlier today. Were guessing around noon when you probably were in school."

Knowing the truth, one-hundred percent correct without a doubt hit her harder than a million cars and all the air seemed to escape her and she started to pant. "But..." she started helplessly. "But that's not...not fair!" She managed to say. She felt like tearing out all her hair. "She...what?!"

"You should probably leave before you get in serious trouble." One said with hos voice laced with pity. Sakura didn't move. "But...who?" She breathed. "What?" She felt very confused and her sentences were jumbled up. It didn't make sense somehow yet she understood the situation perfectly.

The officers mutve seen her lost and confused look for they both gently ushered her out of the house where she saw that other police officer she had kneed. He surprisingly didn't look mad at all and pretended he didn't see her. She knew he did.

"You should have been better!" She suddenly yelled at him, baring her teeth angrily. "You should've made sure I didn't come in here!" He still payed no attention to her.

"You shoul've kept me away!" She yelled

From what?' She thought. 'From the truth?' " You should've done better!"

The officers grin suddenly tightened on her arms and she could tell they were making sure she didn't completely lose it. She turned on them now.

"Dont look at me that way!" She hissed at the one on her left. "I don't want your pity! Dont look at me!" Already out of the house, they put her into one of the police cars, knowing that she was probably going to cause some sort of trouble. They were probably used to things like this.

Being shoved into a not particularly comfortable car wasnt pleasant and she seemed to hiss angrily like a cat at everyone that simply looked at her, but as soon as the door slammed shut she broke into tears. She hated to cry, she really did but it wasnt that she couldn't hep herself, it was just something she felt like she needed to do. She leaned her head against the window and curled up into a ball and sobbed with such intensity it was almost unbearable.

It wasn't just for her mom, it was kind of a bunch of pent-up feelings whether they were good or bad. A lot of shit had happened to be frank. All she could be was confused because she just didn't know why.

Why was her mother the one to be killed? What was the reason? Was it just some random person who had stumbled across that specific tiny apartment? Or for a much more sinister reason?

Why did it have to be right after her mothers heart had been broken into thousands of pieces? Why hadn't she at least been able to have time to heal from her breakup and be happy if only for a little bit?

It must've been hours until someone finally entered the car again and Sakura had cried her last tears. Her head was simply leaning against the window and she stared at the back of the seat in front of her with a confused expression.

"Youre going to have to only stay in your room tonight. We removed the body, but we still need to inspect the house more in case if there are any clues as to who did it and why." He informed a barely listening Sakura. "We don't have anywhere else you can stay and no family members of yours live close enough to this area as we would like. You old enough to take care of yourself. Only leave your room for school, food and to use the bathroom. It would also be better if you stayed with a friend for a while."

He then opened up the car door her head was resting on, motioning for her to get out of the car. She surprised herself by slowly getting up and walking to the front door never looking back. She hears the car engine start up, but not drive away. He was probably waiting until she was inside.

She opened the door and again that horrible smell was still there despite them already have removed the body. She felt like she was going to throw up. She walked up the stairs in some sort of semiconscious state and opened her room door, simply collapsing on to the floor and burying her head in her hands.

Her phone buzzed from her pocket and from the ringtone she knew it was Ino. News traveled fast and probably all of Konoha knew of the murder by now. The yellow tape still surrounded the house, so it was unlikely anyone was going to knock on the door or come inside. That thought suddenly made her feel very lonely.

She looked around her room, it seemed so foreign to her yet at the same time familiar, and she caught sight of her appearance in the mirror. She had red, poofy eyes and her long, her long, pink hair a complete mess. Her hair that was exactly like her mothers aside from the color difference.

She stood up again on shaky legs,and she walked to her desk and picky up a pair of scissors grabbing a clump of her pink hair that strongly reminded her of her mom tightly with one hand and picking up the scissors with the other hand she closed her eyes.

Her hand suddenly felt light and her bare shoulders became cold without the familiar feeling of hair against it. She smiled wryly. She looked so different now. Unfamiliar. It was an odd yet pleasant feeling.

Ino called several more times, but Saura never answered, nor di she really want to. After half an hour Naruto eventually joined in on the calls too. Her ringtone for Naruto was a remix of a voice

recording. She had made him say 'believe it,' 'ramen' and 'dattebayo,' several times and then made it into a cool remix with an app on her phone.

Ten-Ten called, and Hinata seconds after and it seemed like a million text tones went off at the same time for minutes long. Eventually, to Sakuras mixed relief and sadness, the calls stopped ad they seemed to give up. Sakura fall asleep after some time, still resting on the door.

The next day , she woke up early at five in the morning, before school, but she didn't get up for the bus and she head it leave, driving past her house. She could imagine students sticking their heads out the bus windows to look at her house. It was the time for the late bell to ring for Konoha High, and she was still in her house. Ino, Ten-Ten and Hinata called again, late for Kakashi-sensei's, and probably even whom in the class, but when it was time for second class the calls stopped.

Voicemail at eight thirty-seven a.m her phone said, playing the voicemails. She bit her lip, waiting to hear the many voicemails. -from Ino Yamanaka.

Hey Sakura, she had the expected voice filled with worry, not sad or mad, not happy. I know that you're not coming to school, probably no one really would consider what happened, but that doesnt mean you can answer my calls. Please call back I want to talk to you.'

End of message. Next message from Ino Yamanaka at nine o clock a.m

Sakura! She sounded angry now, answer the frickin phone, okay? It's not impossible! I want to tak to you and if you don't want to answer because you're hurting then please pick up or call me back so I can at least know I tried to make things better! Please let me act like your best friend, which I am. It's the same with Ten-Ten and Hinata and Naruto, they're friends of yours too and you can call them if you don't want to talk to me for some reason. Bye Sakura.

Next message from Uzumaki Naruto at ten thirty am.

Sakura-chan! He shouted happily. I know , I know, what you're feeling isn't the best feeling in the world. That's why I bought some of the new spicy ramen that came out yesterday! You can come on over if you want after school today or tomorrow. The ramen? Nah don't worry, I bought thirty packages which should be enough! Buh-bye Sakura-chan! See ya later!

That was from the very last phone call from Naruto and the only voicemail. That one made Sakura cry all over again. Normally she would have readily agreed to trying out new ramen with Naruto, his face was just like a little kids on Christmas day, ready to get his presents. The last time she went over to try. some new ramen, Hinata had come with her since everyone else was busy and Naruto's apartmnt was small and only meant for one since he didn't have parents. They had played cards while slurping ramen and drinking root beer out of shot glasses ad Naruto looked the happiest anyone had seen him. It was probably he had never tried new ramen with anyone else before. Sakura felt bad because he was going to have to play cards and eat the new ramen alone.

Her phone went off again , but she couldn't make out the ringtone because she was sobbing so loud.

New voicemail from Uchiha Sasuke at twelve thirty am. Sakura stopped crying and stared at her phone with wide eyes. She couldn't believe he actually called, let alone left a voicemail.

Sakura, its Sasuke. He paused in hesitation almost like he didn't quite know what to say. Uh, look I know you're not feeling the best and I know Ino and the others have started messages saying that same thing...but ..yeah. i was standing with them while they left you messages because you decided not to answer. I also feel the need to tell you that it's really hard on people when they find out something like this has happened to one of their best friends on the news, or papers, or other people and then try to make things better, but instead you shun them away. When you do that, Sakura, they really hurt inside because they feel like, as friends, they aren't doing their job to be there for you. Remember Sobau? That was for Naruto. Your friend. You and everyone else were there for Naruto and Naruto was nice enough to let us be there for him. Your situations are similar. So, Sakura, let us be there for you. If you can, wherever you are, give at least one of us a call. See you around.

Sakura bit her lip.

See you around.

She wasnt going to do it. She wanted to give them a call so badly but she couldn't. What Sasuke had said hit home, and her mid opened up to let in the thought of how Ino, Naruto, Hinata, Ten-Ten, and maybe even Sasuke, Neji and Shikamaru felt. But... she couldn't pick up the phone. What were they going to say? What was she going to say? Sakura let out loud moan and buried her head in her hands.

She was contemplating just going back to sleep like she did before the phone calls, but then yet another thing interrupted her. There was a knock on the door. Her head whipped up from her hands and she seemed to shrink into the nearest corner, hoping that whoever the person knocking on the door wasnt going to come in.

Of course they are!' Sakura scolded herself. 'People can see the yellow tape and back off, if this person knocks on my door then yeah he's gonna come in!'

She couldnt decided which would be worse; a random stranger or Ino. It was still school hours but they've skipped plenty before.

"I know you're in here." Said a rather familiar voice from down stairs.

Sakura froze and her heart beat a mile a minute. 'Oh no..' "N-No I'm not!" Sakura croaked. She heard footsteps coming up the creaky stairs. "You might want to tell which room is yours unless you want me to walk in on a room you don't want me to be in." Said the voice, sounding closer. Sakura shook her head even though the person couldn't see her. She could hear him open a door right next to her own, the bathroom, and close it again. She heard the doorknob on her room door jiggle.

"Sakura?" A head of skipy hair curiously poked through the door and turned to face her way. "There you are." He said.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Sakura asked nervously. Kakashi stood up straight and gave a sheepish wave. "Yo." He said ignoring her question.

"What are you, my teacher, doing here , in my house?" Sakura repeated slowly. "Lets just say we have some very important things to discuss." He said, sitting down on the floor in front of here. "And as for me being in your house, I have permission from myself, as ex-head of Konoha Police Department."

Sakura's eyes widened in surprise. Having a teacher who was once the head of the Konoha Police Department wasnt something that happened very often. The new teachers this year were definitely...different.

"Most people would beat around the bush breaking news like this, but I bet you'd rather me get to the point, right?" Kakashi asked in an oddly easy-going tone.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked softly with narrowed eyes .

"Well, to put it simply," Kakashi said, rubbing his neck. "Youre moving to Suna."


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N OMG I NEVER THOUGHT THIS DAY WOULD COME ITS CHAPTER TEN DAMMIT! YESH! NO WORDS CAN DESCRIBE MY EXCITEMENT RIGHT NOW! WaitForItDotDotDot you are a mind reader! There will be some of Gaara back story in this, but not much today. Later on though it wll actually be a little centered on him like in chapter 12 or 13 it's ALLL Gaara! And as for all the people reading HIH i know you probably hate me now for leaving it at a cliffhanger like that. Hehe yeah my bad! *sheepish grin. And there will be some fluff here where pairings are more visible, but, let me remind you guys again that not all pairings will be like you think or may not last! I know it's depressing but most Fanfics I read aren't that great because pairings are so obvious or they never separate or there's never any tension. Once they get together it's all good from then in most cases, but I like that a little extra flavor lol. But yeah. On with the story and hope you enjoy! Review! It's my motivation you guys!**

**Sakura looked completely baffled and for a few seconds she didn't really know what to say. Her mind completely blanked except for Kakashi's word running over and over in her head. **

**"Wh-what did you say?" She asked incredulously, as if she didn't hear him. She prayed that she heard him wrong. Kakashi now spoke with a more serious tone. "Let me explain." He said, crossing his arms. "Your mom has now passed, and you, an underage individual, has no parent or guardian to look after you." Sakura now knew where he was going. "And since there is none of your family members in Konoha, or at least none that have made their presence noted, we have to think even further. You have an aunt in Suna willing to take you in and that's it. You don't have any known godparents either, and even if you had family in Konoha, we can't force them to take you in. If they decide not to then that's their decision."**

**_'Didn't even try to sugarcoat his harsh words.' Sakura thought wryly. It was all the truth though._**

**Sakura put a hand on her forehead with an overwhelmed look. "But..." she tried to grasp around for the right words. "I...don't want to leave!" She said. Kakashi's lone eye looked sympathetic. "Sorry Sakura, but I'm afraid that's how this situation is."**

**She buried her head in her hands. "Why does this shit always happen to me?" She asked herself in irritation, forgetting the fact that she was cursing in front of her teacher. He didn't seem to mind. "How long do I have?" She asked, her head still in her hands. "Untill this coming up Friday." She didn't reply.**

**_'Such a short amount of time...' she thought with a grimace._**

**"Well, will I see you in my class tomorrow morning?" Kakashi asked, now back in his teacher mode. Sakura nodded. Kakashi saw that she wasnt quite in the mood to talk, so he gave her a smalll wave before silently leaving. She heard the front door click shut behind him.**

**_'I know what I'm going to do.' She told herself. She checked the time and it was almost six. She crawled slowly over and on to her bed and laid down, snuggling up in the blankets for much-needed warmth. She couldn't seem to find that warmth she felt the strong need for. _**

**_She left the light on which wasn't easy to sleep with, but eventually, probably because of everything that's happened in only a day, she fell asleep, exhausted both physically, and most of all, mentally._**

**_'I'm not going to tell them.'_**

**_¶°¶°¶°¶°¶°¶_**

**_As soon as she walked on the school campus, no, even on the bus, (no Ino because Sakura rode a different bus for today) she was looked at with what seemed like a billion pity-filled stares, which was expected, but she tried her best to ignore them all and rushed to Kakashi's class, preparing herself to face her friends, and most importantly, Sasuke. She decided on not calling back, so she didn't exactly know what he was going to think of that. He was probably mad, but maybe he was just going to be indifferent; with Sasuke, it was impossible to tell. Ino was the same; she was probably going to glomp Sakura, or maybe just be pissed off and ignore her for who knows how long. _**

**_Sakura saw Shikamaru with Temari again in the halls, and she gave a polite 'hello' to the both of them and Shikamaru gave her the basic update of what school had been like the day she was gone while Temari just listened and walked beside him. She made some comments here and there most of them were off-topic insults to Shikamaru though. Really, there was only one word that described what it was like when Sakura was gone; hell._**

**_This was the first time Sakura had really hung out with Temari since the time she got lost on the way to Asuma-sensei's. She was cocky and insulted Shikamaru a lot but in a teasing way, and she shared the characteristic of being bossy like Ino, also not in a bad way, but besides that Temari was basically the exact opposite of Ino. She was also very tomboyish._**

**_Sakura was in Kakashi's room five minutes late with Shikamaru by her side, not really caring about being late since Kakashi almost always came to class about twenty to thirty minutes after the bell rang signalling the beginning of homeroom. She was nervous about waking in through the door, but somehow she managed to be the one to open it instead of Shikamaru who politely volunteered and it felt like she was onstage in front of a crowd of thousands with the spotlight directed right on her. But that thousand was really eight._**

**_"Oh hell no." Sakura heard Ten-Ten whisper. The brunette must've finally caught sight of the pinkette. Ino and Naruto were the first ones that sprang up from their seats and Sakura was more than relieved when they both jumped and hugged her tightly instead of ripping out her throat. _**

**_"SAAAAKURAAAAAAAA!" Naruto and Ino screamed. They nearly knocked her over with the force of their hug._**

**_"Hey guys." Sakura said weakly. Hinata and Ten-Ten joined in on the hug in a more sweet manner than dramatic, and Shikamaru stood to the side with a smirk before his expression turned startled when Ino yanked him into the group hug._**

**_The whole class stared for a few minutes before eventually losing interest, but Karin and her group could be heard making small comments about how much of a slacker Sakura was for skipping out._**

**_'No one cares, you bitch.' Sakura thought. But her heart fell when she sadly realized that she would probably miss fighting with her and Ami and Lani. They had some entertaining and memorable fights that were basically well-known school legend. Sakura would definitely miss those._**

**_"Oh my gosh!" Ino suddenly said, pulling back from the hug to tightly grip Sakura's shoulders with an excited grin. "You missed it!" she said, jumping up and down. "Ten-Ten totally punched Neji in gym. Got detention for not being 'youthful' but she said it felt pretty damn good!"_**

**_Sakura gave a small laugh, yet frowned at the same time. "Why?" She asked with wide, questioning eyes. Ten-Ten answered sheepishly. "Eh, he was just rubbing some stuff in my face. You know, adding in the 'youre a girl' shit that got me ticked off." She gave a small smile. It was a lie._**

**_The truth was that there was so much tension with Sakura being gone that Tuesday, and Ten-Ten was talking about it to Ino and Neji had overheard the conversation. Much like the Naruto/Sobau incident, he made it known to the world about how much he didn't give a shit. He went into another destiny talk saying that 'that was the way destiny wanted it and there was nothing anyone could have done to change it.' Ten-Ten and Ino were so mad that they almost pounced right on him in front of Gai-senei, but instead they waited and before Ino could have the chance Ten-Ten took action. That was the cause of the angry red mark on Neji's slightly swollen cheek. Now, tension between her and Neji was even worse._**

**_Sakura nodded, completely buying Ten-Ten's lie and Ino, who was there when it happened and knew the truth, was nice enough to go along with it for Ten-Ten's sake even though she didn't know why she was hiding the truth from Sakura for Neji. "Oh and Lee said he missed you." Ten-Ten said with wiggling eyebrows. Sakura felt suddenly very bad for calling him weird to his face. But it was true...and he was creepy..._**

**_"How 'bout we sit down?" Shikamaru suggested from his squished spot in between Ino and Hinata. They all agreed after being in their tight hug for so long, and they all sat in their usual spots next to each other. Sasuke was still sitting down, since he didn't participate in the group hug, and was drawing in his notebook when Sakura walked past him. Her usual spot was actually next to Sasuke, but for today she decided to sit next to Ino. She was still nervous about his reaction._**

**_"I don't bite, Haruno." Sasuke drawled when she passed him. "Are you avoiding me?" Sakura turned around with a half smile and walked back over to sit next to him. She gave an apologetic glance to Ino, but the blonde merely gave her a thumbs-up and asked Shikamaru to sit next to her._**

**_Thinking of Ino's thumbs-up, Sakura remembered Ino accusing her and Sasuke of secretly dating. To be honest, she was probably going to miss Sasuke the most after Ino and the girls, if not as much. He was always teasing with her and she was so competitive with him. She hadn't even gotten the chance to make him laugh for real. She wanted to cry again, but she bit her lip and put on a bright smile and sat down next to him._**

**_She touched his shoulder lightly. "I'm sorry." She whispered. Sasuke looked at her questioningly. "For not calling back. I'm sorry."_**

**_Sasuke gave a half-smile. "Are you apologizing? Wait let me relish this moment." He paused with a smirk and Sakura gave him a soft punch in the shoulder and giggled softly. He got serious again. "It's ok." He said quietly. Sakura honestly expected his tone to be grudging, expecting Sasuke to be one to not forgive things so easily. _**

**_"I really didn't to expect you to call back, I just wanted you to know how everyone else felt. My goal was really to make sure you were going to come to school today, not to call back. I wouldn't have call anyone back if I were you." He explained._**

**_Sakura shook her head with a small smile. "Gosh Sasuke, you're so complicated!" He smirked._**

**_"Can I show you something?" He asked. It was a weird thing for Sasuke to ask, especially so shyly and that peaked Sakura's interest even more._**

**_"Sure." She said. Sasuke slid his notebook over to her desk. It was the rest of the chibis. There was naruto, with a bowl of ramen in hand swirls all in the backround since he usually wore shirts with similar looking spirals. There was a tomboyish Ten-Ten, fashonista Ino, proper Neji, shy and timid Hinata, and a sleeping Shikamaru. everything was perfect...except.. Sakura frowned._**

**_"Where's you?" She asked with a small pout, poking his shoulder. He blinked. "I didn't make me." He said bluntly._**

**_"But you're one of us!" she protested. She took Sasukes notebook, flipped it to a blank page and whipped out a pencil. "I'm going to draw it myself." She said with a determined look. Sasuke raised his brows but looked over her shoulder curiously._**

**_"No!" She said. "No looking until it's done!" So Sasuke stared at his desk, sneaking looks at Sakura's drawing when she wasn't looking. She hid it good and he couldn't make out a single line._**

**_'I wonder if she's any good.' He thought to himself. She was pretty slow, slightly sticking her tongue out in concentration and her strokes were light. She went over the light lines again to darken it. She took so long that even Kakashi finally arrived and she wasn't finished and Sasuke began to get impatient. It was pretty much five minutes before the class ended when she was finally done._**

**_"There!" Sakura said proudly, admiring her work. Sasuke literally snatched the notebook from her small hands and he stared at the chibi of himself long and hard._**

**_It wasn't anything particularly good, as an artist himself, he was very picky with his art and wanted everything to be perfect; he could find a mistake in the Monelisa herself, but that was just him. It wasn't bad either. It was complete with the chicken butt hair, and he had his arms crossed with a small smirk. There was the Uchiha fan symbol drawn in the backround that looked a little tilted to the left and there was his name in neat bubble letters. She had good handwriting, he noticed. In the backround was a pool with sacrifice written in it and tomatoes and rice grains were in the backround too, though the tomatoes were oddly shaped._**

**_Sasuke looked at Sakura's face. It was expectant, waiting for his approval or disapproval and her eyes were wide with curiosity. Sasuke put down the notebook. He looked at her. He smiled._**

**_ He cleared his throat. "This is great, Sakura." He used her first name. No Haruno, just...Sakura. _**

**_She felt her heart crack. How was she going to leave all this behind...? She felt her eyes get slightly watery, but again, she put on a smile that, this time, wasn't completely fake. She was partly elated that he said her artwork was great...but...it hurt._**

**_"I'm glad." Sakura said, beaming. Sasuke couldn't see how much she was hurting, and, surprisingly, continued to smile back. Smile for real._**

**_It hurt._**

**_-()-()-()-√•√°√•√°√•√°√_**

**_"Lee?" Sakura asked curiously, staring at him with an odd look. "What are you doing?" _**

**_"Sakura-san." He panted, pushing himself up with one hand. "A person as beautiful as you does not deserve someone as weird as I am!" He declared. Sakura rolled her eyes at this kid's dramatic attitude and hoped that he couldn't honestly be serious. "That is why I shall do two-hundred one hand push-ups for each hand! I shall become a better person for you, my cherry blossom!"_**

**_"Look." Sakura said in exasperation. She set her book-bag down and sighed. "I'm sorry, Lee. I just don't like you...at all." Lee stopped mid-push-up. He stood up and looked down, Sakura was a head shorter than he was, at her with sad wide eyes._**

**_"But why?"_**

**_"Why are you trying so hard for someone who doesn't even like you? I barely know you." She was honestly trying her hardest to try to understand Lee and so far it was being as hard as figuring out how Sasuke worked. "Sakura-san-" "Dont say the-san please." Sakura pleaded. "It's too proper." Lee nodded._**

**_"Sakura...Love takes time!" Lee said with a small smile that replaced his sad one moments before. "I will keep trying to win your love and I will try my hardest!"_**

**_"Can I just know why?"_**

**_"Sakura..." Lee said seriously. "No one on this beautiful earth should ever do anything with out a purpose or without trying their hardest! I have a purpose in this world and so do you! We shall make the mot of that meaning!" Something about what he said made Sakura stop looking at Lee with that look. She suddenly felt so very ashamed that she had called him weird and thought he was some nerdy dork. _**

**_She paused. What he said was so right and she respected him more than she had before after he said that. "You know Lee...you're absolutely right."_**

**_Lee lit up like a Christmas tree and gave a victorious fist-pump. "Yes! Sakura-san agrees with me! "_**

**_She giggled softly. She should definitely hang out with this Lee guy more often. She told him so and he cried so much that Sakura feared he was going to suddenly die of dehydration._**

**_"Uchiha, now that Sakura's back, remember to control yourself okay?" Anko teased, drawing some laughs from the class. Sasuke shook his head with a smirk. "Will do." He said. He had to answer since he didn't have a notebook to distract himself like last time since he left it in his locker after Sakura used it. Sakura giggled, remembering the incident when she had screamed out 'sexual harassment!' when Sasuke simply touched her shoulder. _**

**_Sakura and Sasuke talked all class long, getting caught a number of times, and Sasuke's hair had white spots all over from where the chalk had rubbed off after being thrown by Anko-sensei. Surprisingly, she was teaching something normal. It's been that wood sword stuff all last week, and now she was finally teaching real science. It wasn't any fun though; just about the body and how it worked. She made sure to add in some facts about the weaker parts of the body and pressure points, but that was actually pretty interesting._**

**_It went by fast like always; once you got used to Anko's psychotic personality, her classes were actually very enjoyable. Her comments were funny and she had some pretty fun 'fun facts.' Definitely enjoyable._**

**_The school day was over in a snap and the bus ride was fast. Too fast. Ino was always the one who could be heard above everyone elses voice when on the bus, actually just about anywhere, and she made Hinata faint again with the subject of her and Naruto. Poor thing had to get tired of it sometime._**

**_Hinata was improving so much when it came to her stuttering. Her spending time with a confident Naruto all through Kakashi-sensei's and Kurenai-sensei's payed off and she was way more open than ever before. The girls were so proud of her and Sakura was thankful that it had happened while she was still in Konoha so she could congratulate Hinata on her positive change. Sakura had to wonder if Hinata was going to improve even more while she was gone. She also wondered another thing..._**

**_"Ino, I have something important to ask you." Sakura said. The bus was at her stop and she waited for everyone to get off first so she could ask Ino her question._**

**_"What's up with you and Shikamaru?" She asked. Ino smiled. "Nothin much actually. Still been hanging out in class and getting in a hell of trouble." Another lie. And again, Sakura bought it and laughed it off before leaving. But, at least Sakura wasnt the only one hiding things. _**

**_"Itachi, are your friends coming over today?" Sasuke asked from the front door of his house. He heard his brother's footsteps run down the stairs and into the kitchen. "They should be here in about two hours actually." Itachi said from the kitchen, turning on the sink. "Why?"_**

**_Sasuke shrugged even though Itachi couldn't see him. "I want to meet them actually. I've been getting a little bored these past few days."_**

**_"And cranky." Itachi added._**

**_"What?!" Sasuke asked, marching over to the kitchen. He saw his brother washing the dishes to use plates to make some food for himself and probably his friends. _**

**_"Well, yesterday you were in a bad, bad mood, so I just let you be. Today you seem fine though." Itachi said with a curious look towards the previously 'grumpy Sasuke.'_**

**_"One of my friends was absent yesterday." He said truthfully. "Ahhh...was it a girl perhaps?" Sasuke turned red. "NO!" He backtracked. "Well yeah, Sakura's a girl...but you're thinking..."_**

**_"Do you want me to invite her to dinner?" Itachi suddenly suggested out of nowhere. He seemed pretty happy at the thought of his little brother having dinner with a girl. Honestly, Itachi wasnt doing it just to tease his brother, he was just ready for him to get himself a girl. He hasn't had a girlfriend since maybe seventh grade if Itachi remembered correctly. "It won't be that bad since my friends are eating over too."_**

**_"No." Sasuke said firmly. Itachi turned off the sink and driend his hands with a paper towel. He hummed thoughrfully. "Sakura is her name?" He asked to himself. "Didn't you have her number on the fridge?" And before Sasuke could really process his words, Itachi was by the fridge, holding a yellow sticky note triumphantly. _**

**_Itachi whipped out his phone from his back pocket with now dry hands and Saskue paled when he saw his older brother type in the number on the sticky note. The older Uchiha held the phone up to his ear._**

**_ "Is this Sakura?" Itachi asked the person on the phone loud enough for Sasuke to hear. "Yeah...yeah, this is Sasuke's brother Itachi. He mentioned me?" Itachi glanced at a fuming Sasuke. "I feel happy to know that. Mm-hmm...Well, I would like to know if you are available today so you could possibly come over for dinner. What? Oh yes, Sasuke mentioned it himself actually...You don't believe that? Okay... So are you able to come over? Yeah, I'll pick you up with Sasuke in an hour from now...my friends are going to be over too is that ok? Yeah like a party. Ok...thanks! Bye Sakura!" Itachi hung up with a rather satisfied look and turned over to look at his brother. "She accepted!" He said to him happily. Sasuke was furious._**

**_"Itachi..." he said through grit teeth. "I...am going to murder you!" Itachi chuckled. "So you really mentioned me to your girlfriend?" He said almost hopefully._**

**_"THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!" Sasuke yelled in frustration. He ran his hand over and over again through his hair in agitation. A bad habit of his. "Did I not say I was going to annihilate you?!" "You actually said you were going to murder me, not annihilate me." Itachi corrected. He received an angry hiss from his younger brother as he stomped out of the kitchen. 'What a two year old.' Itachi thought with a sweat-drop._**

**_Itachi suddenly looked at the table behind his place in front of the kitchen sink with a frown. "I'm going to have to make more food." He set to work._**

**_Meanwhile, Sasuke was fuming upstairs in his room with steam seeming to come out of his ears. "Stupid Itachi!" He yelled, hoping his brother could heard him. "Sakura is not my girlfriend!" He rolled over one his bed to face the cieling after throwing a few unfortunate pillows to the ground, and felt something sharp poke his thigh. He curioisly reached into his pocket and brought out a neatly folded piece of paper._**

**_It was the picture Sakura drew him. His anger at Itachi suddenly melted away, and he cursed himself when his eyes grew soft and his thoughts suddenly turned towards the pinkette. She had to have been through hell and back these past few days, and he honestly was amazed at the fact that she still had the ability to smile even right after her mothers murder. No, he didn't really care as much as he could have, he's gone through worse, but he still felt the odd urge to feel somewhat sorry for her._**

**_He thought about her a lot, and then about Itachi's teasing. Maybe...it was a possibility...could he like her? Like...as a girlfriend? He wasn't the type to deny such things when he already knew the truth deep inside, but at the moment he was still searching for that truth._**

**_'How does she make me feel?' He asked himself thoughtfully, absent-mindedly stroking the chibi picture of himself._**

**_He didn't really like the idea of relationships; he couldn't grasp how they worked for the life of him, and he didn't like the prison-like commitment that was expected. Everyone talked about a relationship as a good thing, but in highschool it just seemed to be for bragging rights. Just to show off what chick or guy someone was able to pick up, and 'going out' didn't really make sense since teens never really went on dates together anymore. And relationships never lasted in highschool. Never._**

**_But on the other hand, Sakura seemed to be different than most girls he met. She wasn't a crazy fangirl who only wanted him for his looks, and, since she probably already at least guessed he was wealthy, wasn't out for his money. She wasn't incredibly nice like Hinata was, but he knew that if the time called for it, even Sasuke himself could admit she could be an angel. She teased, played genuinely funny pranks sometimes, and was pretty outspoken with a go-lucky attitude most of the time. Most importantly, and confusingly, Sakura brought out a side of Sasuke he thought had died a long time ago. He's been teasing her back, he doesn't even do that with Naruto whom he only argues with, willingly giving her rides when she misses the bus, and when they were at the sleepover at Ten-Ten's, he was acting like little kid again playing tag in the pool. That 'sacrifice' thing he learned from his mother when he was just a toddler and she had done it to Itachi. Ever since she died, he'd sworn to himself he would never to that again because her memory was just so painful._**

**_With Sakura he felt normal. He felt less quiet all the time, less cold, and less uncaring as he had been. Whether it was just Sakura or all of the group put together, Hinata, Naruto, Ino, Neji, Shikamaru, Ten-Ten, he felt the most unusual when with the pinkette. But he liked it. _**

**_'Should I...'_**

**_He suddenly made himself a deal._**

**_If he felt different again, like he had been since he met her, during dinner with Sakura and Itachi says he approves or likes her...maybe...just maybe he could considet...likeing ...Haruno Sakura. Consider._**

**_"Stupid pinktette." He mumbled, running his hands through his hair again. His heart suddenly fluttered when he heard Itachi call out his name. 'We're picking her up.' He thought. He shook his head as he hopped off his bed. He never knew liking someone could be so difficult. They made it look so simple in movies. It was just 'Oh I love you!' all the sudden, but in reality it took forever to confirm the possibility. Either that or Sasuke was just a special case._**

**_"You're going to have to show me where this Sakura lives! You do know right?" Itachi asked. "Yeah I know." Sasuke replied, expecting Itachi to comment about the fact that Sasuke knew where Sakura lived. Surprisingly, he kept his mouth shut but there was a visible smirk tugging at his lips. _**

**_Sasuke ran down the stairs and grabbed his keys on the way to the door. "I drive." He called. Itachi didn't argue and followed his younger brother out the door._**

**_"So what's she like?" The older Uchiha asked curiousy. He buckled in and Sasuke started up his car. "Do you think she's pretty or nice?" _**

**_"Why do you seem so excited that I just know a girl?" Sasuke asked with a scowl. "I know plenty of other girls. Like Hinata, Ino, and Ten-Ten." Itachi blinked. "You have friends that are girls?" _**

**_Sasuke nodded. "And theres Naruto, Neji, and Shikamaru." "You're doing good this year Sasuke." Itachi said with soft, happy eyes. Sasuke's eyes twitched. His brother was happy that he had friends? What kind of brother was he?_**

**_ "So, is this Sakura better than all the other girls?" Sasuke sayed silent. "Sasuke, I'm your big brother. I need to know this stuff, and besides, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone."_**

**_"Fine." Sasuke gave in with a sigh. "Yes, I like her better than all the other girls. I guess...she's pretty, and sometimes nice, teases me alot, isn't exactly a good drawer, but not a bad one either, has nice handwriting, pink hair and green eyes, a go-lucky attitude most of the time and her favorite color is red. And when it comes to Naruto I guess she ca be pretty violent." He really didn't mean to say so many things about her...it just kind of slipped out. The car was silent for a while and Itachi was secretly smiling brightly._**

**_"I'm glad I'm able to meet of of your friends." Itachi sad, emphasizing 'friends.' Sasule ignored this and seemed to drive faster. He tapped his fingers on the wheel impatiently, wishing the speed limit wasn't so slow. "Anxious?" Itachi asked amusedly. Sasuke ignored this question._**

**_They were there without a single wrong turn which was a slight surprise for both of the Uchihas, the younger only have been there few times, all which Sakura was with him to direct him. The yellow tape was still around the house, but Sakura had texted Sasuke after Itachi called, saying not to pay it any attention. So in other words, he wasn't supposed to be in the house, but Sakura told him he shouldn't really care._**

**_Itachi stayed in the car, making Sasuke walk up to her doorstep to pick her up. It was a weird feeling; he was picking up a girl for dinner at his house. He had never brought a girl to his house before, and it was strange that it was brought up by a whim and a sticky note Itachi had the wise idea to mess with. It could've been Hinata since Saske had her number on the fridge along with everyone elses. It was a strange coincedence._**

**_He knocked on the door twice and waitie, hearing a shout of "Coming!" from the other side. When the door opened, Sasuke suddenly felt very self-concious. He was simply wearing what he had been all day; some jeans and the 'cool story babe' shirt Sakura had made him buy at the mall. Sakura, however, was wearng a green, spaghetti-strapped knee-length dress with black leggings and green high-heels. It wasn't anything extremely fancy, but it looked amazing on her, and Sasuke had to wonder how pink and green could look so good together. _**

**_"Oh, so I dress nice for you, but youre wearing jeans for me, your guest." Sakura commented with a scowl. She grabbed on to his arm, much to Sasuke's surprise though he didn't object, and she was the one to lead him to the car. He was speechless still. "What's the matter Sasuke?" She asked with a teasing grin. "You're less talkative than usual, Brick Wall. Tell me, am I that pretty?" She bat her eyelashes and giggled at herself. _**

**_He frowned. "How come you're not asking me seriously?"_**

**_"What do you mean?"_**

**_"You were only joking when you told me to tell you you were pretty." He said, stopping before the car door. "You don't think you're pretty?" She blushed a deep red and started playing with her hair with the hand that wasn't gripping Sasuke's arm tightly. "W-Well...I'm not exactly the most good looking girl in town..."_**

**_"You really dont have any self-confidence." He stated. He opened the door for her like a proper gentleman, but was surprised to see Itachi now sitting in the back instead of his previous spot in passenger seat. The older Uchiha held his hands up. "Dont make the lady sit in the back, little brother." He said. "Be a gentleman and let your guest sit with you in the front." Sasuke slammed the door shut in his face. "My guest? Asshole." He mumbled under his breath, remembering what little say he had in Sakura coming over for dinner._**

**_"It's like a nicer Sasuke from heaven." Sakura mumbled to herself with a dazed expression. "What?" Sasuke asked, now opening the passenger seat for her. "He looks exactly like you, but your attitude stinks compared to his gentleman-like character." Sasuke scowled and was suddenly very glad he slammed the door in Itachi's face, the stupid weasel._**

**_Sakura hopped right into the car in a very unlady-like fashion despite her nice attire, and Sasuke slammed her door shut too, although with consierably less force than the amount he used for Itachi's door. He walked around the car and sat in the drivers seat smoothly._**

**_"So are we really going to your house, Sasuke-kun?" There it was again; that small, curious and little-girl voice with the added suffix of kun that she had used at the pool. "Hn." Sasuke merely grunted back. "Wow...is your house big?" She asked with wide, curious eyes. _**

**_"Hn."_**

**_She smiled excitedly. "What kind of food are we going to have for dinner tonight?" Those words made Sasuke's eyes widen and heart beat faster. He seemed to hear the beats over the music on the radio and Itachi's muffled snickers from the back. The way she said it made it seem like they wete going out on some fancy date at a restauraunt._**

**_"...Hn." he managed. "Who's making it?"_**

**_'So many questions.' Sasuke thought with a cringe. 'Tch. Annoying.' He was such a liar. It was actually not annoying at all, and he would listen to millions of her questions any day, it was just the answering part that was so annoying._**

**_"You know what?" Sakura said with a pout and crossed arms. "I'm going to talk to a hopefully more responsive Itachi." Sasuke narrowed his eyes to where it seemed impossible to see out of them._**

**_"So Itachi-san, what's for dinner?" She asked politely, noticing out of the corner of her eye Sasuke's grip on the steering wheel tighten. She smirked._**

**_"Oh plenty Sakura-san." He said, just as politely. "Made a whole bunch, enough for a week with just me and my little brother" Sakura beamed. "I sure hope you're a good cook Itachi-san. Hey, mind if I call you Itachi-kun?"_**

**_"That's enough!" Sasuke barked angrily. Sakura giggled with a decieving look of innocence. "What did I do Sasuke-san?"_**

**_"Are you switching suffixes with me and Itachi?" He asked through clenched teeth. "Oh, I didn't know you liked the kun, Sasuke-kun." Itachi, watching it all from the back, smiled fondly at Sakura. She was purposely irritating Sasuke to see what reactions she could get get out of him, and Itachi found this very amusing. Especially the fact that Sasuke wasn't shouting at her like he normally would have with any other person acting such a way to him. Very amusing._**

**_"Ok, ok, I'm done now, Sasuke." She said with a smile. She touched his shoulder lightly when he didn't respond. "I'm glad you didn't scream sexual harassment like I did." She said with a wide grin. He cracked a smirk at that and immediately Sakura thought, 'Score!'_**

**_"What, what about sexual harassemnt?!" Itachi said from the back with a bewildered expression. _**

**_"Oh nothing Itachi-san, Sasuke was just tou-"_**

**_"Sakura." Sasuke spoke up in a warning tone. "You said you were done." "Ok, ok" she sighed._**

**_"I would very much like to know what happened." Itachi said, still lacking an answer. _**

**_"In Anko-sensei's we were playing jokes, and when he touched my shoulder I screamed that out." Sakura answered truthfully. Itachi raised a perfectly arched brow that belonged in a 'sexy' museum. Sakura chastised herself for thinking that, but she couldn't control herself when she looked to compare them to Sasuke's._**

**_"We're here." Sasuke said. Saura looked out the window and her eyes widened when they caught sight of the mass amount of beautiful white and blue houses. "Wow..." she breathed. She looked around to face Sasuke with an exited look only to see that she was the last one in the car. "H-hey!" She said, opening the door and running out. "Wait up! I don't want to get lost around here with a place full of more Sasuke's!" She was fearful of his family other than his brother, and she could only hope they weren't as emo as the original Sasuke. He had to get it somewhere._**

**_Sasuke had completely forgot that she didn't know how little Uchiha's there were. She didn't know there were only two; himself and his brother._**

**_She caught sight of Sasuke and Itachi again and ran to catch up and slowed down once she was finally beside Sasuke._**

**_"Thanks for waiting." She said sarcastically._**

**_"Anytime."_**

**_"My friends should be at the house right now." Itachi informed them, checking the time on his phone. "Don't be frightened when you meet them; they can be quite a rowdy bunch." Sasuke rolled his eyes as a 'no duh,' went through his head._**

**_Sakura smiled at the older Uchiha. "Don't worry, I have pretty energetic friends myself." Itachi nodded with a smile back which made Sasuke scowl even more. He had the sudden urge to say something to get Sakura's attention back to him._**

**_"There's one tall blonde who looks a lot like Ino." He started, shoving his hands in his pockets. "That one's Deidara. He has weird tattoos of mouths on his hands and seems pretty...different. There's also a red-haired one that looks like Gaara, but with slightly darker skin. That's Sasori."_**

**_"Tha'ts kind of creepy that two guys in their early twenties looks like people in our grade." Sakura said with a weird look. _**

**_"Actually, Deidara is only nineteen." Itachi ppinted out. Sakura and Sasuke looked at him in slight shock. "They both look pretty young I guess." Sasuke said thoughtfully. Sakura was the one to narrow her eyes._**

**_"Itachi-san, do you have any friends that happen to be girls that Sasuke met?" She asked with her sweetest look. "Is she by any chance as young as this Deidara?"_**

**_"Sasuke didn't meet her, but there's a girl named Konan who has short blue hair, but she's in her tewnties." 'And taken' Itachi mouthed to the pinkette. Her glare melted away with that. They were standing on the doorstep of the main Uchiha house and Sakura was nervously twiddling her fingers; she wondered what Sasuke's parents were like. She wondered if they were nice, or really strict because they were Uchiha._**

**_"Wh-what are your parents like?" She asked nervously before Itachi could open the door. Sasuke and Itachi visibly stiffened and seemed to freeze. Sakura couldn't see it, but Itachi had looked at Sasuke with a stern look. _**

**_"You didn't tell her?" He said softly, barely heard under his breath. Sasuke looked away. "Here, I"ll take you upstairs so Itachi can fix things up and we can talk about that up there." Sasuke mumbled, still not looking at anyone. Itachi opened the door and stepped in and so did Sasuke and a puzzled Sakura._**

**_Sakura could hear a bunch of people shout out Itachi's name from what was probably the living room, and Sasuke took her upstairs. He took a turn and opened the door and Sakura turned red for what felt like the dozenth time today when she realized what it 's room._**

**_'Im in Sasuke's room.' She repeated over and over in her mind, as if trying to convince or remind herself it was all real. "Are you going to come in or just stand there?" Sasuke asked with a slightly amused look. He walked right into the room and sat down on his chair in front of his desk. Sakura walked in hesitantly._**

**_His room wasn't like anything she expected except for the main colors; navy blue and black. His bed was a queensize with a wooden frame and three black pillows and a navy blanket that looked like it was stuffed with something; probably expensive bird feathers. There was a desk messily covered with papers scattered everywhere and a small lap-top that looked like it wasnt used very often. The surprising part though, was that his room wasn't as clean or tidy as Sakura had expected. She expected him to be the type to have everything all neat and organized, but it seemed to be the exact opposite. There were some dirty clothes on the floor along with some papers that probably blew off the desk because of the fan. The desk wasn't exactly neat either. But the lack of crazy neatness made the setting more comfortable. She sat on his bed and was deighted when it bounced up. His bed was pretty bouncy and she hopped up and down lightly._**

**_"So what's so crazy about your parents that you had to bring me to your room to tell me?" Sakura asked, still bouncing her butt on the bed. Sasuke crossed his arms and leaned back into his chair with closed eyes. "...Theyre dead." He said it straightforwardly._**

**_"Oh haha, Sasuke. That's actually not very funny." Sakura said rolling her eyes. "Sakura, look at me." Sasuke ordered. He opened his eyes and Sakura stopped her bouncing to look up and inspect his face. He didn't look like he was joking one bit. Sakura swallowed hard._**

**_"Y-you weren't kidding..." she said more to herself than to Sasuke. He still shook his head. "Me and Itachi are actually the only two Uchina. I'm surprised you didn't know since it's actually taught in some history classes in places. Onr of the biggest massacres by only one man." Sakura bit her lip; he sounded so dull when he talked about it, so blank and with no emotion. Almost bluntly._**

**_Sasuke expected her to apologize. He really did and was actually already opening his mouth to say 'Its fine,' but Sakura interrupted._**

**_"Do you...do you need a hug?" She asked nervously. Sasuke was taken aback and surprise was written on his face. He turned away from her eyes._**

**_"...N-no." He cursed his stutter. "Look at me and say no." He did. He turned his head and reluctantly forced his eyes to stare into hers. "No.."_**

**_Saura stood up and walked over to him. "I-I said no, Sakura. I'm fine." That damn stutter again. He stood up which was actually a very stupid thing to do when trying to avoid a hug, and Sakura wrapped her arms tightly around his waist, ignoring his limp arms. She leaned over and whispered something in his ear._**

**_"Your eyes are telling me otherwise."_**

**_His breath caught in his throat and his whole body tensed up. But...he was just glad she didn't apologize like everyone else..._**

**_She was different._**

**_"Sasuke, your bitch Itachi told me to come get yo- woah! What the fuck is going on!" Sakura yanked herself away from Sasuke and they both looked at the now wide open door to see a man with gelled back silver hair and pink eyes staring at them with a smirk and suggestively wiggling eyebrows._**

**_"Itachi!" He called out. "Looks like your brother is getting some with a pinky! And I thought Konan's hair was pissy." He probably meant weird. Itachi was up the stairs and by the silver-haired man before Sasuke or Sakura, a naturally fast talker, could open their mouths to respond._**

**_"Sasuke?" Itachi asked with a grin. More came and Sasuke's room door was filled with adults staring at the two._**

**_"I remember you, un!" Deidara yelled._**

**_"We bought you a toaster, better be grateful." Sasori said, even though his friend was the one who ruined it in the first place._**

**_"I..." Sakura seemed at a loss for words. "It was just a hug!" She said exasperatedly. "There there Sakura, it's ok." Itachi said with a smile. "Dinner is ready. I originally sent Hidan here to come get you both, not to spy." The Hidan guy looked like he couldn't really care less._**

**_"There something called knocking, asshole." Sasuke hissed. Hidan glared. "What was that, fucker?! You got some balls to talk to me like that! Who the hell you thing you are dammit! Dickless! Bastard! Piece of Sh-" Sasuke actually covered Sakuras ears with a baffled expression._**

**_"Dont mind Hidan, yeah." Deidara said, walking up beside Sasuke with a wide grin. "He just has a big potty mouth along with a temper, un. He just takes time getting used to people."_**

**_"What was that, Barbie?!" Hidan yelled._**

**_"Enough." Said a deep voice. If could be heard clearly above all the yelling, yet it didn't seem to be loud either. To Sakura and Sasuke's surprise, Hidan and Deidara shut up._**

**_The person who said that seemed to be the same age as Itachi, and he was definitely intimidating. Sasuke lowered his hands from Sakura's ears, but she grasped on to his wrist. 'I wonder how her hand would feel in mine..' he thought in real curiosity. Her hands were so small and look amazingly soft._**

**_The man who had spoken with a voice that seemed heavy with authority had spiky orange hair and purple eyes with black rings. 'Everyone has contacts around here.' Sasuke thought. Actually, Hidan and Pein's eye color was natural, though just as unique as Sakura's hair. He had many peircings, three on either side of the bridge of his nose and two prongs beneath his lower lip. On both ears he had studs from the lobe up to the cartilidge and a big bar going right through his ear, top to bottom. Sasuke winced; all that had to be painful._**

**_"We are at Itachi's house." He spoke up. "We should show respect." He looked at Itachi. "But since he did that dirty prank last week, it's time for payback!" He smirked. Sasuke and Sakura both gaped and blinked twice. _**

**_"What...the hell?" They both said in major confusion. The orange haired man they thought to be intimidating was now on Itachi's back yelling things at the top of his lungs while everyone else was singing random songs and dancing. Sasori was the only normal one and just stood to the side with a small smirk._**

**_"Let's just get to the table before they do." Sasuke whispered to Sakura. She nodded, still staring as they slowly inched out the door._**

**_Sasuke and Sakura both ran down the stairs once Sasuke's room full with weirdos was out of sight and they quickly found the kitchen. Not too long after the two found a seat, the band of friends came racing down after._**

**_"I call dibs on head!"_**

**_"If I remember correctly, it is my house."_**

**_"I call head damnit, so no way in hell am I not going to fucking get the head of the damn table!"_**

**_With a lot of shoving and some broken plates, everyone was seated with Itachi and the orange-haired man on the two ends of the table where Hidan had wanted to sit. Deidara and Sasori sat next to each other, Hidan sat on the left of orange-hair and on the right side of orange-hair sat a girl with blue hair, Konan, Sasuke remembered Itachi saying._**

**_"Sasuke has not met any of you yet." Itachi spoke up amidst all the clattering and clinking of silverware and plates. "Let's all introduce ourselves and one thing we find interesting."_**

**_Sakura stopped eating and looked around, interesting in this 'meet and greet.' Sasuke, however, looked like he just thought they were all idiots and that was that; he didn't want to give them a chance. "Sasuke." Sakura said, nudging his shoulder. He put down his fork and looked at her. "You know," she started. "They're not all unlike me, you, Naruto, Hinata, Neji, Ten-Ten, Ino and Shikamaru. Theyre just a few years older and different people, but they're all best friends, crazy ones at that, but because they're comfortable with each other. Give them a chance? Please?"_**

**_Sasuke grunted._**

**_Sakura took that as a yes._**

**_"I am Pein." The orange-haired one said. Sasuke raised a brow at this and Sakura rapidly shoved food in her mouth to keep away the giggles. 'Like...Pein in the ass?' She thought. She shoved in more food. "I like to get peircings obviously, but there's not exactly anymore room for new ones. Other than that I like to hang out with my girlfrind here Konan." He wrapped an arm around the blue-haired girl who looked at him with an adoring grin. Sakura 'aw'ed softly and Konana gave the pinkette a wave, being the only other female in the house. Sakura happily waved back. She liked Konan already._**

**_"So that's what Itachi meant by taken..." Sakura mumbled._**

**_"What was that?" Sasuke asked. Sakura smoled at his cheerily. "Oh no its nothing, Sasuke!" She looked at her plate. "But I am super hungry! Maybe we can eat while we listen." And she started eating as everyone introduced themselves._**

**_"I don't have to introduce myself to you bitches!"_**

**_"Thats Hidan." Sasori piped up with a bored voice. His feet were disrespectfully propped up on the table, but nobody really looked like they cared except for Sasuke. Hidan started spewing out foul language that Sasuke even considered worthy of making him o through the effort of covering Sakura's ears. Sure, she was a potty mouth too, but the words this Hidan were saying were so foul he had to flinch at a couple. Uchiha Sasuke simply did not flinch._**

**_"It is not necessary to introduce myself, but I can tell you that I am studying to become a doctor." Itachi said. Sakura beamed at this and had that excited look. She leant forward in her seat and Sasuke inwardly groaned. Whenever she was excited she was so annoying. He listened nonetheless._**

**_"So am I Itachi-san!" She squealed childishly. "When I'm older I would like to be a nurse for a while then maybe a doctor when I'm really good."_**

**_"You might have to be a nurses assistant before an actual nurse though Sakura." Itachi reminded her gently. She pouted and Sasuke could obviously tell she wanted to skip the assistant part._**

**_"Well, at least I'll be able to deliver the cute little babies!" Itachi chuckled at her excited voice, but at the mention of delivering babies Sasuke seemed to choke on his rice. He snatched his cup of tea and gulped it down._**

**_"I'm Konan, and I also like to believe I'm the only sane one around here." She said with a smile. "I'm also the only girl in our little group, but I have about as much authority around here as Itachi." Even Hidan didn't argue with that which was a huge shocker for Sasuke and Sakura. "I only have one peircing thanks to Pein, and I like to do origami!"_**

**_Sasuke glanced at Sakura's face and grunted in amusement at her wide eyes. She seemed to like and idolize Konan already along with Itachi._**

**_"Im Deidara, un! I love art, and I think art is a bang! It lasts a mere second, but its beauty remains in your memory, that last fleeting second, yeah." Deidara said with an inspired glint in his eyes._**

**_"I believe that art is eternal beauty." Sasori argued. "It stands for all future generations to appreciate and to show their children and so on."_**

**_"So it's pride, yeah?!" Deidara said, suddenly angry. "So everyone can see your work, un?!"_**

**_"It's for everyone to enjoy! Unlike your stupid art is a explosion that not everyone can experience!" Sasori seemed more riled up than Sakura or Sasuke had even seen the seemingly emotionless adult._**

**_"Yeah well-"_**

**_"Okay!" Pein cut in with a roll of his ringed eyes. "Its Sakura's turn."_**

**_Sakura blushed from beside Sasuke and swallowed the remaining food in her mouth. "Oh..." she said, pink as her hair in embarrassment. "Uhm..my name is Sakura Haruno...I uh.. just like to hang out with my friends.."_**

**_"Who?" Konan asked curiously._**

**_"Uhm..Sasuke, Ino, Naruto, Hinata Shikamaru, Neji, and Ten-Ten." She answered. "Seems like you have a lot of friends Sakura-san." Itachi complimented. She blushed even more._**

**_"Sasuke, your turn."_**

**_"You all know me." Sasuke said disinterestedly. No one really bothered him since they did indeed know him very well since they had all been over numerous times and heard about him from Itachi. It was strange that this, out of all the times they were over before, happened to be Sasuke's first time actually talking to them. Somewhat._**

**_They finally ate, chatter heard everywhere, but without the yelling and shouting which was a nice surprsise. Sakura kept talking to Sasuke as she ate and he merely replied with a grunt or shrug. She actually didn't seem to mind._**

**_Dinner was delicious and Sakura thanked Itachi with a warm smile, and eventually went back upstairs with Sasuke when the older Uchiha started clearing away the dishes. She supposed he would want some friend time._**

**_"So Sasuke." She said awfully happily. She was actually not thinking about her mother. She was just trying to forget about it; to make her last days in Konoha the most enjoyable. "Do I have to go home?" She asked._**

**_"No." He said. _**

**_"Than what are we going to do?"_**

**_Shrug._**

**_"Do you have cards?" She asked hopefully. He grunted a 'Hn' and she took that as a yes. "Oohhh!" She said happily. They went into Sasuke's room and closed the door behind them. "You wanna play poker? We dont have to use money though."_**

**_'Of course.' Sasuke thought. 'I'd kick her ass.' _**

**_He smirked and pulled out the cards and poker chips from one of his desk drawers; an odd place to keep gambling items._**

**_He was happy to see that she had no talent for poker, Texas Hold 'Em, and he easily won the first few rounds. She was obviously losing her excited and competitive mood and her face morphed into a frustrated pout._**

**_"Are you cheating!" She said with an accusing look. Sasuke shrugged and Sakura narrowed her eyes. Though she knew that he knew she wasnt going to check his pants for hidden cards or anything._**

**_But, on her search for hidden aces or pairs, she noticed something strange._**

**_"Sasuke?" She said, sounding a little worried. "What's that red dot on your arm?" Sasuke merely glanced at the dot on his upper arm she was talking about and shrugged it off._**

**_"Have you ever had the chicken pox?" She asked, laying her cards down in a fold. He took the chips in the pile and shook his head. "Sasuke, I think you have the chicken pox." He looked at her like she grew another head and rolled his eyes._**

**_"Doubt it." He said. He put the cards away, getting a little bored of winning. There was just no competition._**

**_"Sasuke!" She said firmly, grabbing his arm inspect it. "I am studying hard to become a nurse as you heard during dinner! I think I know this stuff!"_**

**_He ignored her._**

**_Later on, after simply talking for a little bit and Sakura trying to persuade Sasuke to let her gel his hair back, it was time for her to go home. Sasuke drived her till she was at her front door, as close as any car could get._**

**_ "Thanks for having me over, Sasuke." She said with a small smile gracing her lips. "I had a good time."_**

**_Sasuke nodded. "Hn."_**

**_Then, she ran up to him and hugged him around the waist, and gave a small squeeze before letting go and dashing in the house. He didn't see her tears, but he just stood there, motionless, until she shut the door behind her. He felt his heart flutter but...there just was something wrong._**

**__-†-__**

**_"Gaara!" Temari yelled with frustration. "Stop acting like a child! Get back here now!" _**

**_Gaara turned around, not yet walking out the wide open front door. "Was that an order?" He asked with a slight tilt of his head. Temari's hard expression seemed to falter. "Gaara, I am your older sister. Father is out, so it is my responsibility to watch over you."_**

**_"I am not a child."_**

**_"Than stop acting like one!" Temari finally yelled at him. "Just because you're the youngest doesn't mean you can act like a brat to me! Please, for once in your fucking life, show some respect!" _**

**_Gaara glared with cold, emotionless eyes. He took a step closer and Temari was tempted to step back. "You don't understand." He said lowly in his raspy voice. "You don't understand. Stop pretending like I have an importance to you. Stop pretending that Father actually asked you to watch over me."_**

**_Temari's mouth opened slightly and she bit her lip in an uncharacteristically nervous manner. 'Gaara is right.' She thought. 'He never asked me to watch over Gaara.'_**

**_Gaara smiled sinisterly. "Dont lie to me." _**

**_He turned back around to face the door. "I am unwanted. Father does not need nor want me. You yourself find me intolerable. What's the point." He finished in an almost lazy voice._**

**_What is the point..._**

**_"Gaara.. don't you dare leave!" She ordered. She didn't try to prove his words wrong. She just avoided it. _**

**_"Tch." He turned around and took a step._**

**_Somehow, his foot seemed to miss the ground._**

**_His body slumped over._**

**_His foot couldn't support him weight._**

**_Gaara suddenly collapsed on the ground in head of black clothes and red hair._**

**_"Gaara!"_**

**_Why? What is the point?_**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N I'm kind of sad here guys! Guess how many views I have on HIH? Hundreds! And I only have like eight reviews from the same person. Nah I don't ****_need the reviews, but lately I've been getting lazy with mah updates, so I need a little motivation whether it be a reminder PM or review! Love ya guys! And yes I'm a girl WaitForItDerpDerpDerp. xD anyways, chapter eleven! Hope you enjoy and on with the story!_**

Sasuke had the chicken pox. It was official a day after Sakura had guessed it and made Sasuke worry slightly about the blister-like dots on his arms, and Itachi had dragged Sasuke for a check-up just to be sure. When the doctor confirmed Sakura's guess, all Sasuke could use as an excuse was to grumble to Sakura, "You jinxed it." The doctor also guessed that he probably had it for a few days before without even realizing it. But there was also the fact that he knew also had a small fever.

So, for the whole day of Thursday, including school (she skipped), Sakura was always at the Uchiha mansion; most of the time entering the house with a dishcloth and a jumbo-sized bag of Beef Jerky in hand.

"Morning Itachi-san!" Sakura greeted the older Uchiha brightly. He nodded with a smile a let her in through the door. "Sasuke's still in bed." He informed her. "He's sick still, but getting better." Sakura nodded and gave him an appreciative smile before heading to Sasuke's room; yes, she still remembered where it was.

She trudged up the stairs and slammed open his door, walking in with her arms spread out dramatically. "Saaaaasukeeeee!" She sang loudly. Sasuke groaned and rolled over on his bed. "Guess who's here?!"

Sasuke was laying on his bed, his blankets thrown to the floor, with all of his fans and some of Itachi's that he took, turned on high and pointed directly on him. He was sweating and sprawled out on his bed.

Sakura covered her eyes and the bag of beef jerky fell to the ground.

"Put on a shirt!" She screeched, blushing madly. Sasuke was indeed, shirtless and technically half-naked. "Stupid Haruno." He croaked. "Its too...damn hot." And Itachi said his fever was getting better?

Sakura still covered her eyes for a few seconds for good measure, not without a few peeks of course, and put her hand back down by her side. "Okay, I'll take that." She said with a pout before suddenly brightening up again and skipping to the bed. "And I got some Beef Jerky for us!"

Sasuke sat up and leaned against his wall of pillows and made room for her to sit on the bed. She sat down and eagerly opened the bag of Beef Jerky and Sasuke knew that she didn't really buy it for him as much as she did for herself. He rolled his eyes and took one out of the bag and chewed it slowly, relishing its wonderful flavor. It was one of his few favorite snacks.

"So how you feeling, Sasuke?" Sakura said with mouth full of jerky. She already knew the answer before Sasuke even opened his mouth. "Peachy." He sarcastically replied.

"Ugh. I had the chicken pox when I was five. It sucked." She said. "It was torture and I got so itchy." Sasuke rolled his eyes again, in all his sweaty and itchy glory, now going through what Sakura had to deal with before. He started scratching at his bare stomach again and Sakura's hand visibly twitched. He kept on scratching his bare, and very muscular she noticed, stomach. She smacked his hand away and he sent her a harsh glare which she fiercely returned. One did not simply smack an Uchiha's hand.

They stayed that way for what seemed like forever.

"No. Scratching!" Sakura scolded with a finger point for emphasis.

"HN."

She picked up the dishcloth and threw it on his head with a scowl. "Itachi-san cooled it down for me and said to give it to you." She said. Really, she had brought it for him instead, but she felt that Sasuke didn't really need to know that piece of information. "It'll make you feel a bunch better."

He grunted and did as she told. "Any homework?" He asked. He sighed as happily as a Sasuke could sigh when the cold of the dishcloth touched his forehead. "Nah. I wasnt really in school though. I skipped."

Sasuke glared some more. "That was stupid." He said bluntly.

"Eh...well..." Sakura's smile suddenly fell and she avoided Sasuke's eyes. He took notice and narrowed his eyes, but he kept his mouth shut, not always one to pry. "I guess I'm not really in the mood for school." She lied with a small shrug.

Tomorrow was the day. The day. Her last day. In Konoha. With her friends. With Sasuke. Ino, Naruto, Shikamaru, Neji, Hinata, and Ten-Ten.

She still didn't tell anyone. But she knew she wasn't going to leave without a goodbye whether it was more for her friends sake or her own.

"You're horrible at lying." Sasuke said softly. He sat up straighter. "What is it?"

"Nothing Sasuke." Sakura said almost angrily. "But for now I'm here, so let's just enjoy the moment okay?"

I'm here.

Slightly taken aback by the firmness she held in her tone, Sasuke nodded once and laid back down, leaving it be for the time being. 'Is it about her mother?' He wondered to himself. It was a possibility.

For not much longer.

Sakura left after an hour of just sitting and chatting to Sasuke, who didn't really respond all that much. It started to get dark out and she had to leave, and Sasuke actually got up to walk her out the door despite her protests and telling him he needed his rest to get better. He didn't respond and continued to walk her out the door and Itachi sent her away with some leftover dinner that he insisted she take home. It was a little overwhelming to have two men, very handsome ones at that, be so kind to her in a way. The door shut behind her and Sasuke stood there for a few seconds, leaning up against the wall.

"I heard about her mother." Itachi spoke up from behind him. Sasuke didn't turn around and ran a hand through his spiked up hair. "Hn."

"You're very lucky, Sasuke." Itachi said with a small smile. "If she didn't have any family here in Konoha, she would have to move to Suna."

Sasuke's heart seemed to drop for a second at that horrible thought, and he let out a long sigh when he remembered she was staying. She had family here. He turned around to face his brother and sighed again, but this time with a little less panic.

Sasuke opened his mouth to talk, but his brother interrupted him. "You like Sakura, don't you." He seemed to bluntly state it than ask.

Sasuke closed his mouth. He couldn't say that he loved her, but he couldn't honestly say he didn't like her as more than a friend. He didn't honestly think it was possible to truly fall in love with someone a person has only known for about a week. "Yeah." He said simply. Itach's face flashed with genuine surprise when his stubborn brother admitted to such a thing instead of denying it, but then he simply grunted with a smile and walked off to make his dinner and some soup for a sick Sasuke.

"When are you going to tell her, Sasuke?" Itachi asked from the kitchen. Sasuke closed his eyes. "I don't know." He answered truthfully with a sigh. He ran his hands through his hair some more; he wasn't used to dealing with such troublesome things. "Might as well ask tomorrow." He grumbled lowly. "Get it over with." Oh, how it sounded so easy.

Sakura couldn't get to sleep at all. The last few days had been restless but she eventually fell asleep, but today she was so tired she considered the possibility that she was already asleep and just dreaming. She texted everyone as fast and as much as possible, but they at least still had school tomorrow and needed sleep. Sasuke was already getting a little better surprisingly, and he pestered Itachi to let him go to school so he wouldn't miss anymore work. Of course, Itachi eventually gave in to Sasuke's stubbornness.

Ino lasted until twelve and that was the longest out of everyone besides Naruto who could've texted all night long if he hadn't eaten ramen and forgotten to text back. Sakura's phone was under her pillow, unused at the moment, and she stared at the ceiling. She was tired, yet completely wide-awake.

Her aunt, one that's Sakura's never even heard of, was going to pick her up after school which Sakura was going to skip again to pack her stuff. And she wanted to break the news in a call. Face-to-face is simply too painful.

The next thing the sleep-deprived pinkette knew, the sun was lightly shining behind her curtains and she got up to eat a small breakfast despite her lack of her lack of hunger. She ate, changed, packed what little things she had, and sat in her mother's room for a while in a respectful silence. Those tasks finished, she knew what had to be done and there was no more holding it off or waiting a little longer.

Picking up her phone was hard itself, feeling like it weighed the world itself, and just dialing the number made her cry. She typed in the one number she had the longest out of all her contacts.

"Hey, I know you're at school." Sakura croaked with a choked voice when the phone stopped ringing and the person on the other side of the line picked up. "But this is important."

"Speak up, forehead! Kakashi's class is really loud!" She heard Ino's voice yell from the other end of the phone. There as laughter and screams in the background.

"I'm leaving..."

"Oooh!" Ino squealed. "Pick me up so I don't have to be stuck in this prison! You've like, skipped the last few days of school!"

"You don't understand...I'm moving. Suna, Ino. Suna."

There was a long stretch of silence and Sakura was holding her breath and biting her tongue to keep in her soft cries. She needed to be strong for this.

"Wh-...why?"

"I don't have anyone Ino." She winced at how blunt the words seemed to come out of her mouth. "I'm still too young to live alone. Mom is gone."

"My dad! I swear he'll take you in! I'm an only child with a house for like, seventy!" She said frantically.

"Ino, there's nothing I can do." She whispered. "It's not my decision to make."

"When are you leaving?!"

"…Today.."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Ino said furiously. Her voice was getting even more high-pitched than usual and Sakura knew that meant she was frustrated and on the break of tears. "We could've done more! Forget school, you're more important. Ugh you're such an idiot!"

"I know." Sakura whispered.

"I'm glad you do! And I'm also glad that you're apparently ready to talk to Sasuke about this because he's going over there! And he doesn't even know it's going to be for the last time!" She spat out. Ino hung up.

"Goobye...Ino." Sakura spoke to herself.

Ino had asked why she hadn't told anyone earlier. The truth was...

"I just wanted my last days with them to be the same. Like every other. Not the last." Ino had taken it out of her. It took everything Sakura had just to be able to say one single word. She felt bad, but she just sent one, long group text to everyone else.

"Sakura?"

She choked and spun around to face her door, her phone dropping from her hands when she saw who it was. Her eyes widened, tears spilling out the edges.

"S-Sasuke...?" She whispered.

He took a step towards her and narrowed his eyes dangerously. He took something from behind his back and set it down on Sakura's desk that was beside him.

_'Flowers?!'_ Thought sakura must all be for her mother.

Ino had said something about Sasuke showing up at he house...but...

Sakura instinctively scoot back towards the wall, further away from him. "What did you just say?" He hissed lowly, taking another step towards Sakura. "You expect me to know by a text? From what I just heard a minute ago, even Ino got a god damn call!" He stepped forward some more and ran a hand through his hair in his usual sign of anger and frustration. Sakura let out a small whimper.

"Today is your last fucking day, and god knows when I'll probably see you again, and how do I get those news?!" He yanked his phone out of his back pocket angrily. "A text!" Sakura's eyes again wandered to the flowers placed on her desk.

What?

He stared at her. "Well?" He yelled, slamming his fist on the desk beside him angrily. Sakura flinched. "Say something!"

"What more is there to say, Sasuke?" Sakura whispered with tears flowing freely from her eyes.

"You better have something come out of your mouth now because you sure had enough time to think of it." He hissed. "All that time you had when you could've told us!" He started to pace around the room. "You better know what to say because I would just love to hear what you had to take so long to think about. So long that I only found out the exact day. Why didn't you tell me- any of us?!"

"..."

Sakura just sat there and stared at him. Her emerald eyes glistened with her tears. "Oh." Sasuke groaned. "You're going to cry?! Oh cut the crap, Haruno, are you really the type for self-pity? Then again, it wouldn't really surprise me. I should be the sad one, all I came here to say was that I actually liked you as more than a friend!"

Sakura gasped and her eyes widened. Sasuke seemed to just realize what he said, and he looked slightly shocked. He was panting. Sakura was trying to make her mouth move, to say something but nothing came out. Sasuke shook his head.

"What a waste of my god damn life."

"Sasuke, now you're going to far." She whispered. He looked satisfied that she finally spoke and Sakura could just feel that her words were fueling him up."Does it even matter? This is the last fucking time I get to see you. Why? Why couldn't you tell anyone before? Are you honestly that stupid?"

"I just wanted it to be the same!" Sakura finally yelled. Sasuke looked taken aback and didn't respond. Sakura continued on with tears flowing more than before. "I didn't want it to feel like it was my last days with the people I care most about in my life!" She didn't lower her voice. "If I told you or anyone else, It would all feel so...different. I wanted it to be normal and not with that feeling of just rushing to get everything done for our last moments together. I wanted to just pretend I wasnt leaving, if only for a little while..."

"So you're just deluding yourself."

Sakura didn't respond to that. It was the truth, too. And she knew it from the very beginning, right when she decided she wasnt going to tell anyone. "Just ask yourself this, Sakura." Sasuke turned toward the door. "What does that accomplish?" And he left.

What does that accomplish...?

_'I came here to tell you that I actually liked you more than a friend!"_

The flowers...were they...?

The front door slammed shut and Sakura could hear a car engine start up. It got louder before rapidly fading away until it couldn't be heard.

What does lying to herself accomplish? So she got what she wanted for he most part, everyone acted normal, but what did she feel? Did that make her feel better, worse? If she had told them, maybe her and Sasuke could've worked out for a while, if only for a little bit. She would've said yes, if he asked if she liked him too. She would've hugged him with a squeal, as if he were proposing. Today, she just received shouting and she herself was wordless nearly the whole time.

'It was the same up until I told Ino...but was the same really what I wanted all along? I don't know...I don't really care anymore. He's already gone.'

He's gone. Sakura's heart seemed to disappear. Sasuke was already gone. He left. What she had told him and he had told...that was the last conversation they were ever going to have. And god, she regretted it. Ino, their conversation was just as bad. Short, with barely a goodbye worth remembering.

'Was it really worth not telling them?'

"Come back..." she whispered. "Sasuke...come back...I'm sorry. I am so so so sorry**."**

It was too late. He was gone. Ino's call had been made. The texts to everyone else had been sent. And her aunt was on her way.

It was too late.

**':,':,':,':,':,':,':,'':'**

Sasuke was driving, and was faster than the speed limit to add, and it wasn't to his home. He just needed to drive. Focus on the road, get his mind off of her. It wasn't working and he unintentionally sped up some more. He needed to call Itachi. He needed to talk to someone. He always liked to keep his problems exactly that; his own problem, but this time it just seemed to tear and eat away at his heart and he felt that if he kept it in any longer he would explode. He dialed the number faster than he thought he'd ever dial anything, and immediately pressed the phone up to his ear.

"Itachi." He said as soon as the person on the other end of the phone picked up. He was surprised that his voice came out so steady. "Sasuke?" Itachi said on the other end. "Whats up? Aren't you at Sakura's?" That made Sasuke's heart clench tightly.

"Itachi." He repeated, slower this time. "Shes...she gone..."

"Who?"

Sasuke parked the car in a lot in front of the gas station and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "Shes gone, Nii-san. Sakura's gone." The cold reality hit him harder than he expected it to.

"Did you tell her?"

"Yeah, but...shes gone." Sasuke repeated. "Gone. Suna. Forever." He closed his eyes and Itachi was silent, not knowing what to say.

She was gone. It was only two weeks they've known each other for God's sake, but he felt as if someone had sucker punched him in the gut. There was nothing bad to look back on in those past,short two weeks and it felt like he'd known her forever. He envied Ino; she was able to know the pinkette for years and he did for only weeks and was already used to her presence.

"Are you okay, Sasuke? Where are you?" Itachi asked, concerned.

"I'm fine." Sasuke said through grit teeth, two fingers still holding his eyes squeezed shut. He was such a liar.

He looked to the passenger seat beside him and noticed the Cheery Blossoms he bought were gone. He probably left them at sakuras; that's good. He felt a lump in his throat. He was never going to see her again. "I'm so...so dramatic." He said, laughing at himself. He took a deep breath. "How pitiful."

"Shut up Sasuke and come home." Itachi ordered. "Your not in the mood to drive."

Sasuke didn't argue and started up the car. His fingers were still keeping his eyelids shut. He felt warmth on them. Liquid warmth. Tears.

"Itachi..." he helplessly whispered. He couldn't force out any more words.

She's gone.

**…°`•~°`•~°`•~°~•`…**

**"**I'm afraid we do not know what is wrong with Gaara-san." The doctor said with an apologetic voice. "We will have to keep him in the hospital for a while longer."

Temari sighed. "Don't you guys at least have any guesses?" She said in annoyance with clenched teeth. The doctor shook his head. When Gaara had passed out, for a second Temari was afraid that he had self-harming issues, but when she took him to the hospital, they said that wasn't the case at all, but what was they didn't exactly know either.

"We have a nurses assistant watching over him and she will tend to his needs during his stay." The doctor informed the blonde. "You can go home if you'd like."

Temari nodded. She didn't want to leave for good, but she needed to make a short tip to the house to explain what happened to Kankuro who was out partying. With girls. Man-whore.

Meanwhile, Gaara was finally awake and already trying to sit up. A young girl his age was struggling to keep him lying down, insisting that he should relax. Like many others things, he ignored her.

"Gaara-san, please lie down!" She pleaded. "If you are uncooperative I will have to call in other nurses. Do you want that hassle?"

Gaara looked at her for a second and she stared right back with a defiant look. Gaara relaxed and finally laid down.

"Thank you." She said. Gaara didn't reply. "Are you thirsty?" She asked politely after a moment of silence. No response. "Hungry?"

"Who are you?" Gaara asked out of the blue. The girl looked surprised for a second before smiling and pointing at herself. "Me?" she asked. "I'm Matsuri."

"No, I mean who are you."

"I'm a nurses assistant if that's what your asking." Matsuri said. "Well...no not really, but my mother is a nurse, one of the best ones, and today was bring your kid to work day and she brought me so I could help out. And here I am."

Gaara was silent yet again. "Who do you think I am?" He asked, curious green orbs boring straight into Matsuri's brown ones. She tapped her chin in thought. "Your were Gaara of the Sand, but now your Gaara of Konoha, the Leaf."

"Is that it?"

Matsuri gave a laugh. "That's more than enough Gaara-san! You are the one and only Gaara of Konoha."

He nodded his head in his pillows in understanding although he didn't understand at all. "Now you should sleep." Matsuri suggested. Gaara knew there was no way that was happening, but he strangely pretended to, just for her sake.

She was Matsuri of Konoha and he was Gaara of Konoha. Was that what each others purpose in life was until they changed it into something more?

…£0\/€…

Her aunt was a woman in her late thirties who looked like one of those badasses in movies that was the favorite gal in every local bar. She smoked and drank, had about three visible tattoos and was an overall pleasant woman to be around, but she was cursed with a smart mouth that made know where she got her own from. It was a surprise she of all people in the Haruno family was the one to take Sakura in whether it was just in pity or not. She didn't look like the type who wouldn't want to deal with petty things such as children.

Sakura couldn't really care any less despite this woman being the one to take care of her for her life in Suna. She didn't feel any need to.

Forty texts. Twenty from Naruto, five from Ino, another ten from both Hinata and Ten-Ten altogether, and three from Shikmaru and two from Neji. Neji was a surprise. Eve though what he said wasn't at all. She smirked wryly when she reread his text along with everyone else's.

Hello, Sakura I hope your trip to Suna will be a short and safe one. Please give your aunt a thanks from me. I am glad you will be in good hands. Enjoy The Sand Village.

Neji

He was so formal, but it was just in his nature. About her aunt though. Sakura looked up to the drivers seat where her aunt, Wing Chan sat. She was bobbing her head to the rock music blasting on the radio. She didn't seem too bad.

"Hey, were turning on this exit here." Wing Chan said, momentarily turning down the music so Sakura could hear her. "I need to pick up a few things, kay?" Sakura merely nodded, not looking up from her phone. She heard Wing Chan sigh loudly before turning the music back on.

Sakura cursed the radio. The Offspring. Youre gonna go far kid. She winced. "What, don't like the song?" Her aunt asked. She smirked and turned it up louder and began to sing to it. Sakura scowled and ignored both the radio and her aunt.

She was acting like Naruto, so very much. Just how Naruto would act if Sasuke didn't like a song. Sasuke. Sakura winced again. The only five hour drive to Suna was going to feel so much longer.

#-#-#-#

Monday.

Naruto

The weekend was over, and so was the group of eight, no now seven's time alone. Instead of hiding in their closets and being all depressed, they all had to face each other now instead.

Kakashi-snesei's class was odd; they actually did some work and it seemed like Kakashi was somewhat affected by the absence of a certain pink-haired student too. They were reading a book by Shakespeare (no, not Romeo and Juliette) and Kakashi didn't once pull out Icha Icha Paradise, which scared the class a little. The usual rowdy class was deathly silent.

Naruto was moody and less-prankative, Shikamaru didn't sleep but didn't pay attention to class either, Ten-Ten got into a fight with Karin, Ami, and Lani in class, giving Lani a broken nose and herself a week of detention, Ino refused to speak, and Sasuke was so moody not even his most daring fangirls dared to come within ten feet of him. Neji was infuriating indifferent.

"Naruto, read pages five through ten please." Kakashi suddenly called out. Narut looked up at the silver-haired teacher with a half-hearted glare. "I don't know where were at." Naruto said. He didn't know because he was still sending Sakura texts that she didn't answer.

"Would you like to tell me why?" He said, already knowing about the phone hidden in Naruto's palm.

"Like to?" Naruto scoffed. "No, there's nothing I'd 'like' to tell you."

"whispered it to where no one but himself and Neji could hear. Well, whatever he said to the brunette, it sure made him wake up.

Gai-sensei intervened right after Wel Uzumaki, Im glad you say so. You'll be spending time with your friend in detention today." Kakashi said. He claled on another student to read while Naruto cursed loudly. 'I dont have time for that.' He thought with a frown. He was obviously going to skip and he had an odd feeling Kakashi knew.

They started to read again and Naruto continued his texts in vain.

Ten-Ten.

Gym was horrible for her, mainly because in that class she got yet another week of detention, making it two weeks total of after school D-hall. Neji was just irritating, and even though he really didn't do much to provoke the bruntte today, she still angrily lashed out at him. She wasn't able to land a hit on him except for a long scratch mark that ran along his forearm, and he refused to land a hit on her. No one tried to stop the fight, partly because Ino and Hinata knew the teen needed to let out all of her pent-up anger somehow and fast. It was actually a surprise when Naruto joined in on the fight, and luckily was on Ten-Ten's side aganst Neji. It was even more surprising when he uppercut Neji underneath his jaw, making the Hyuuga's head snap upwards. Hinata, who was watching ,let out a small squeak. Naruto told Neji somethings, about how every person always started out with a destiny, but they had the choice to change it themselves. He said some others things to Neji, but he whispered them so only him and Neji heard. he Ten-Ten scratched Neji, but was surprisingly held back by a serious-faced Lee. Ten-Ten and Lee had become much better friends after they both found out that they shared the dream of becoming the best at martial arts (and to kick Neji's ass) and Ten-Ten somewhat idolized his ability to never vet up. She seriously doubted even a bullet would take that kid down.

Ten-Ten guessed that Lee understood that she really needed to let loose all her feelings somehow. She hoped he knew how much she appreciated it.

Lee let go of Gai-sensei after Neji left when Naruto said those words to him, and since the teacher was there when the fight started, he dumped all the consequences on Ten-Ten and Naruti since they started it. Even Ten-Ten knew deep inside that his decision wasn't unfair in the least, but it didn't help her ever-presently increasing anger at all.

Ino was the one to calm her down when the fight was over, and Naruto stood by Hinata in a shocking silence. Hinata bit her thumb with a sad look. Naruto squeezed her shoulders tighter and closed his eyes.

They were falling apart.

It was only a matter of time before they all realized it too.


End file.
